LUCKNOW: Handing out a major blow to the BSP just ahead of upcoming bypoll in UP, almost the entire district unit of Saharanpur joined the BJP on late Wednesday evening.
Gangoh assembly constituency in Saharanpur will go to bypoll along with 10 other seats on October 21 and the result would be announced on October 24.
Gangoh seat, felt vacant after the sitting BJP MLA Pradeep Chaudhary was elected to Lok Sabha from Kairana Parliamentary constituency in 2019 General Elections.
As per the sources, around two dozen BSP leaders, including former BSP MLA Ravindra Molhu, current district president Rishi Pal Gautam, zone coordinator Ashirwad Arya, Dharmender Singh, president and incharge of Gangoh Assembly constituency, all switched sides to saffron camp.
The BSP leadership was yet to react to the development. Party’s state president Munkad Ali chose to be non-committal over the issue saying he had yet to verify the veracity of the development and also the reason for the exodus.
It may be recalled that after snapping ties with the SP and walking out of the grand alliance in UP, the BSP, in a major departure from its usual policy, decided to fight the bypolls to 12 seats in UP.
According to party insiders, the choice of party candidate – Irshad Chaudhury-- from Gangoh seat did not go down well the party men and a sort of resentment was brewing up in the district unit. Saharanpur, in fact, has been considered a stronghold of BSP with substantial presence of Dalit population.
In the 2019 LS polls also BSP candidate Haji Fazlur Rehman had won by a margin of 23000 votes. The latest development may impact the prospects of Party candidate.