BSP MP joins BJP, says “Leadership not visible”

Sangeeta Azad, the Lok Sabha MP from Lalganj of the Bahujan Samaj Party, along with her husband, former MLA Azad Ari Mardan and BSP spokesperson Seema Kushwaha, lawyer of Nirbhaya and the victim of the Hathras rape case, joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Given that Sangeeta is a Dalit woman leader, her departure from the party hurts the BSP’s face even more. Also, Azad Ari Mardan, her ex-MLA husband, was the one who, in 2017 on a BSP ticket, had won the Lalganj Assembly segment.

The remaining sitting BSP MPs are two Muslims, a Brahmin, and a Dalit, representing all three nodes of the party's recent electoral caste-community combination. Sangeeta won the SC-reserved Lalganj Lok Sabha seat in 2019, defeating the BJP's then-MP Neelam Sonkar by approximately 1.5 lakh votes. Interestingly, Sonkar has been officially declared as the BJP's candidate for Lalganj in its initial list, IE reports.

Sangeeta while speaking about the exits from BSP said to the Indian Express, “There’s now a leadership void. The party leadership isn’t visible. The people need a leadership)”.

Asked further, she said, “I have no personal issues with the party or its leadership, but Behenji (party’s national leader Mayawati) is inaccessible, while it will take time for Akash Anand (Mayawati’s nephew and party No. 2) to connect with the people on the ground. And this gap is hurting the party.”

She added, “While I am sure that it (the void) would be filled in the future, I think it will take time. We could sense this decline. So, to secure our futures and that of my constituents, I decided to join the BJP. I have been influenced by the policies of the PM, which have benefited the Dalits and deprived sections.”