4 time BSP MLA resigns, joins BJP

Ramveer Upadhyay, a MLA of the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh, announced his resignation on Friday. He would join the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday in Agra, ahead of the state Assembly poll, say sources.

Mr. Upadhyay announced his resignation on social media, saying he had informed the party of the shifting core but that the high command had ignored him.

Before the rise of party general secretary Satish Shandra Mishra, the sitting MLA from Sadabad constituency in Hathras district was a major Brahmin face of the team and was close to party supremo Mayawati.

He was suspended from the BSP in May 2019 for alleged "anti-party activity."

According to BSP officials, he had been rubbing elbows with the Bharatiya Janata Party and had been suspended for anti-party activities since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In the Agra and Aligarh zones, he was accused of endorsing BJP candidates.

Mr. Upadhyay's brother, wife, and son have already pledged their support to the state's ruling party.

In his letter, he wrote, “I had demanded this from time to time. I had also apprised you that we would not win seats as per expectation in the 2019 Lok Sabha election as we had lost even our cadre vote." 

Despite its losses in the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections, as well as the 2012 and 2017 Vidhan Sabha elections, Ramveer Upadhyay said in his resignation letter to Mayawati that the party had not conducted any appraisal.

Furthermore, he claimed that the party had strayed from its founder Kanshiram's beliefs and principles. "Honest party workers no longer have a place." He stated, "Our leader is inaccessible and isolated."