Samajwadi Party leader Ashok Pradhan joins BJP

Samajwadi Party National General Secretary Ashok Pradhan has joined Bharatiya Janata Party along with a number of his supporters. Mr Pradhan joined the BJP in presence of party's national general secretary Arun Singh and Bhupendra Yadav in New Delhi yesterday. 

Mr Pradhan, a former Union Minister of State and BJP MP, called it "ghar wapsi" or returning home. He said he



was feeling suffocated in the Samajwadi Party as its government has unleashed loot in Uttar Pradesh, the health services are in shambles and land and mining mafia is active.

Mr Pradhan was elected to the Lok Sabha from Noida-Khurja seat as a BJP member in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004, and also served as a Minister of State in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Mr Pradhan had left BJP ahead of Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and his re-induction is likely to boost the party prospects in western Uttar Pradesh.