Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday announced that he would not let any more Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs or ministers join the SP.
"Let me tell BJP that I will not take any BJP MLA, minister anymore. They can deny tickets (to their leaders) if they wish to," said Yadav in a press conference here.
The statement of the former Chief Minister came after many BJP MLAs and ministers including Swami Prasad Maurya, a prominent leader from the OBC community, quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Sitting BJP MLAs Bhagwati Sagar, Vinay Shakya, Roshan Lal Verma, Mukesh Verma and Brajesh Kumar Prajapati have also joined SP.
Samajwadi Party has stitched a coalition of smaller parties for the assembly polls and has emerged as the main rival to challenge the BJP in the state.
Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
( With inputs from ANI )
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