Maya loses another stalwart to the BJP
In a major setback to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, her confidant Brajesh Pathak (52), a former MP from Uttar Pradesh, on Monday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party at the party headquarters here in the presence of party president Amit Shah, within hours of his expulsion from the BSP for ‘antiparty activities.’
He cited ‘nepotism, corruption, anarchy and goondagardi’ that Mayawati cannot handle as reasons for quitting the BSP and finding the BJP as the best party that can take care of development badly needed in the state. Mayawati had changed her initial antiBrahmin stance that helped unite the Dalits by picking up Pathak, a Brahmin, and getting him elected to the Lok Sabha in 2004. He was also the BSP MP in the Rajya Sabha from 2008 to 2014.
His shift to the BJP came as a big surprise as only on Sunday he was seen sharing a stage with BSP national president Mayawati at a rally in Agra.
This is a second setback to Mayawati in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections due early next year as another high-profile Swami Prasad Maurya, an OBC leader who is said to enjoy influence over OBC voters belonging to Kushwaha, had joined the BJP early this month.
“There is rampant anarchy and law and order problem in Uttar Pradesh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi development model can only save the State,” Pathak said after being welcomed into the BJP by its general secretary Arun Singh at a Press conference.