BJP leader Dharmendra Kumar Kashyap joined the Samajwadi Party on Tuesday, ending speculation over his political future after he was denied a Rajya Sabha ticket by the ruling party.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav welcomed Kashyap, a prominent OBC leader, into the party and said his return would strengthen the SP ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections due early next year.
Addressing a press conference in Lucknow in Yadav's presence, Kashyap claimed that people in the state were fed up with the BJP government because of what he described as "poor" law and order.
He also alleged that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's bulldozer did not act against people from his caste and instead targeted the poor, news agency Press Trust of India reported.
Kashyap, a former minister, had hoped to secure a Rajya Sabha ticket from the BJP but was not included in its list of candidates.
The BJP fielded state minister Dharampal Singh and Shruti Gangwar, daughter of former Union minister and former Jharkhand governor Santosh Gangwar, from Bareilly district.
After the BJP announced its candidates, Kashyap posted a picture of a sunset by the sea on Facebook on October 7 with the words "Tata Bye-Bye". The post prompted speculation that he could return to the SP.
Kashyap is considered a prominent political representative of the Kashyap community in Rohilkhand in north-western Uttar Pradesh. He had left the SP to join the BJP in May 2013.
He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Aonla in 2014 and 2019 but lost the seat by a narrow margin in the 2024 election.
Kashyap's return to the SP comes after his exclusion from the BJP's Rajya Sabha candidate list and ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled for early next year.
- Ends