Third Uttar Pradesh minister quits cabinet, likely to join SP

Lucknow: OBC leader Dharam Singh Saini on Thursday became the third minister to resign from the Uttar Pradesh cabinet. The resignation letter of Saini, who was the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ayush, addressed to Governor Anandiben Patel is doing the rounds on social media platforms.

OBC leaders Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Singh Chauhan resigned from the Yogi Adityanath cabinet on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

As in the case of Maurya and Chauhan, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav tweeted a picture of himself with Saini, indicating that he is also headed to the SP.

Saini, a four-time MLA from Nakud in the Saharanpur district has also returned the security cover and residence allotted to him by the state government.

After sending his resignation to the Governor, he went to meet Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav. Interestingly, in his resignation letter, Saini levelled the same allegation that other legislators had levelled against the Yogi government.

He said he was resigning due to "gross neglect" towards Dalits, backwards, farmers, unemployed youth and small traders.

The BJP's Uttar Pradesh unit has witnessed a string of defections over the last few days, starting with cabinet minister Swami Prasad Maurya. At the time, Maurya had said that many more legislators would follow suit.

After legislators belonging to the OBC category left the BJP, it is now a Brahmin MLA Bala Prasad Awasthi who has also walked into the Samajwadi Party fold.

Awasthi is a four-term MLA from Lakhimpur Kheri and a known Brahmin face in the Terai region. He also met Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday afternoon.

Earlier, Swami Prasad Maurya, Dara Singh Chauhan (both ministers) Roshan Lal Varma, Brijendra Prajapati, Bhagwati Sharan Sagar, Vinay Shakya and Avatar Singh Bhadana have left the party in the past two days.

On Thursday, Mukesh Varma from Firozabad sent in his resignation. Then Dharam Singh Saini followed suit.