Amethi (UP), Oct 14 Three rebel Samajwadi Party MLAs, including one from Gauriganj in Amethi, joined the BJP on Wednesday in the presence of Union Minister and Uttar Pradesh BJP president Pankaj Chaudhary and party national general secretary Smriti Irani.
Addressing a BJP membership programme in Gauriganj, the Amethi district headquarters, Irani alleged that the Congress is creating an atmosphere of anarchy in the country by targeting the Election Commission and attempting to undermine democracy.
She alleged that the Congress wanted to make its “Yuvraj” a “Shehanshah” and claimed that even if the party brought together several opposition parties, it would not succeed.
She was speaking after Samajwadi Party rebel MLAs Rakesh Pratap Singh from Gauriganj, Abhay Singh from Gosaiganj and Vinod Chaturvedi from Kalpi joined the BJP.
Chaudhary asserted that the BJP would secure a decisive victory in the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, not only in Amethi and Rae Bareli but across the state, and form the government for a third consecutive term.
“The Gandhi family does not have the courage to contest elections alone in Amethi and has to take the support of the Samajwadi Party,” Irani said, noting that Congress had lost nine consecutive elections in Uttar Pradesh where it had not been in power since 1989.
“The BJP’s every worker is ready to give a befitting reply to attempts to undermine democracy,” she said, accusing the Congress of using the Election Commission as a political tool.
Praising the BJP governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh, Irani said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had established a direct connect with people rather than practising dynastic politics.
Amethi, long considered a Congress bastion and represented by members of the Gandhi family for decades, witnessed a major political shift in 2019 when Smriti Irani defeated then Congress president Rahul Gandhi. However, in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Irani lost the seat to Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma, a longtime Gandhi family loyalist.
Chaudhary, addressing the gathering, said India did not belong to any individual or family and claimed that caste-based and dynastic politics was on the decline.
He said the three MLAs had joined the BJP because they felt suffocated in their previous political environment.
Targeting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Chaudhary alleged that the party was trying to create an atmosphere of anarchy and that Gandhi’s statements abroad damaged India’s image.
Chaudhary also said the state government’s resources would remain available for the development of Amethi and Raebareli.
Addressing the gathering, BJP MP and OBC Morcha national president Amar Pal Maurya accused Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav of abandoning socialist ideals associated with Ram Manohar Lohia and Mulayam Singh Yadav and said the party was more concerned about the Yadav family than society.
Chaturvedi said he had joined the BJP because of the development work undertaken in Bundelkhand under the Modi and Yogi governments and his opposition to what he described as the Samajwadi Party’s caste-based politics.
Abhay Singh said he had decided to leave the SP after the controversy over the Ramcharitmanas and what he described as the party leadership’s failure to oppose the alleged insult to Lord Ram. He claimed that he would ensure the defeat of the SP candidate by a huge margin in the 2027 Assembly elections.
Rakesh Pratap Singh said he had won the Gauriganj Assembly seat three consecutive times on an SP ticket and had now joined the BJP to ensure the party’s victory from the constituency.
He won the seat in the 2012, 2017 and 2022 Assembly elections. In 2022, he defeated BJP candidate Chandra Prakash Mishra, known as Matiyari, by 6,963 votes.
Differences between Rakesh Pratap Singh and the SP leadership widened after he voted in favour of the BJP candidate in the 2024 Rajya Sabha elections. The SP expelled him and Abhay Singh in June 2025, following which they remained as unattached MLAs.
The programme was also seen as a show of strength by Rakesh Pratap Singh, with a large crowd gathering at the venue. Several state ministers, including Daya Shankar Singh, Krishna Paswan, Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh, Dara Singh Chauhan and Dinesh Singh, along with former Union minister Sanjeev Balyan and other BJP leaders were also present.
(PTI News)
