Utter Pradesh: With political parties in Uttar Pradesh preparing for the upcoming Assembly elections, speculations are rife of at least five suspended BahujanSamaj Party (BSP) MLAs joining the Samajwadi Party (SP). The MLAs met SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday. The meeting lasted about 20 minutes. "The meeting with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, which lasted for 15-20 minutes, witnessed discussions on the upcoming UP Assembly elections, and it was a nice meeting," Sushma Patel, MLA from MungraBadshahpur assembly constituency in Jaunpur district told PTI.

When asked about the future course of action, Patel said, "Personally, I have made up my mind to join the Samajwadi Party." The other MLAs who met Yadav are MohdAslamRaini, Hakimlal Bind, Mustafa Siddiqui and HargovindBhargav. The BSP had suspended them last year in October along with two other MLAs  ChaudharyAslam Ali and Vandana Singh. They were suspended for opposing the nomination of the party's official candidate RamjiGautam for the elections to the RajyaSabha. At present, there are 18 BahujanSamaj Party (BSP) MLAs in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. When asked what prompted the suspended BSP MLAs to meet Akhilesh Yadav, Patel told PTI, "We were suspended in October 2020 during the RajyaSabha elections, and we were categorically told not to use the flag and banner of the BSP, and also to not attend any party meeting." "At the time of the RajyaSabha elections, the BSP did not issue any whip, nor did we indulge in cross-voting. We were suspended without any basis. We were suspended as we had gone to meet Akhilesh Yadav," she added. "Now, we have to look for alternatives. So, in this context, we had called upon Akhilesh Yadav," she told PTI, and added that now she has nothing to do with the BSP. Earlier this month, Mayawati had expelled BSP's legislative party leader LaljiVerma and Akbarpur MLA Ram AchalRajbhar.