Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) on Thursday expelled two senior leaders Lalji Verma and Ram Achal Rajbhar from the party for "anti-party activities" and the number of MLAs against whom action has been taken has gone up to 11.
Verma was the party's leader in the state assembly. The BSP has appointed Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali as its new leader in the assembly.
Uttar Pradesh is slated to go the polls next year and BSP has decided to fight the polls on its own.
The BSP had performed poorly in the last assembly polls and could win only 19 seats. Eleven of these MLAs have faced disciplinary action from the party.
During Rajya Sabha elections in October last year, the party had suspended seven MLAs for opposing the party's official nominee. These MLAs had also met Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav.
The 11 rebel MLAs against whom action has been taken by the party are Aslam Raini (Bhinga-Shravasti), Aslam Ali Choudhary (Dholana-Hapur), Mujtaba Siddiqui (Pratappur-Allahabad), Hakim Lal Bind (Handiya-Prayagraj), Hargovind Bhargava (Sidhauli-Sitapur), Sushma Patel (Mungra Badshahpur), Vandana Singh- (Sagdi-Azamgarh), Lalji Verma (Katehari), Ramchal Rajbhar (Akbarpur), Ramveer Upadhyay (Sadabad), Anil Singh (Unnao).
BSP has been seeing defections and most of its leaders who have switched sides have gone to Samajwadi Party. BSP and SP had fought the 2019 Lok Sabha polls together but their relationship ruptured after the polls.
( With inputs from ANI )
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