UP polls: BJP MLA joins SP; Congress' Masood too may join Akhilesh

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Bilsi (Badaun) RK Sharma joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Monday. Sharma is the third BJP MLA to join the SP over the last few months. He had defeated his nearest rival, the BSP candidate, by a margin of 28,000 votes in the state polls in 2017.

In another big development, senior Congress leader Imran Masood quit the party and said he will hold a meeting with his supporters about joining SP and seek an appointment to meet Akhilesh Yadav.

Masood said in the current political circumstances, only the SP is strong enough to take on the BJP. Masood last won the assembly elections in 2007 from Muzaffarabad in Saharanpur and is known to have a hold on at least half a dozen seats in west UP.


Both Bilsi and Saharanpur will go to the polls in the second phase on February 14.