Dara Singh Chauhan resigns from Uttar Pradesh BJP cabinet, Akhilesh welcomes him to SP

In yet another big blow to the UP BJP cabinet, Environment Minister Dara Singh Chauhan also issued his resignation letter to Governor Anandiben Patel on Wednesday.

Lucknow:In yet another big blow to the UP BJP cabinet, Environment Minister Dara Singh Chauhan also issued his resignation letter to Governor Anandiben Patel on Wednesday. His resignation letter quoted that he will be quitting his post as a minister in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet in Uttar Pradesh, citing the same reasons as Labour Minister SP Maurya who resigned from his post on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav has taken to Twitter to post a photograph with the former BJP leader, welcoming him to his party. "We welcome the Environment Minister Dara Singh Chauhan to the Samajwadi Party with joy and respect," the tweet reads. Yadav had also tweeted a similar picture with minister SK Maurya who was the first one to resign from the cabinet, although no official announcement of these leaders joining the SP has been put out yet.

Yadav had also put out another tweet earlier, implying that he is in talks with around 12 leaders from the BSP who are also likely to switch parties and join his clan for the assembly elections.

Being the second minister to have left the cabinet, minister Dara Singh Chauhan had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party before the 2017 assembly elections. Thereafter he served as a minister in the government for 5 years. He has interestingly served all three prominent parties that are at the forefront in upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Originally from the Gelwara village of Azamgarh district, Dara Singh Chauhan is among the founding members of BSP. He is considered a competent political leader pertaining to his performance as a politician since he started as the representative of the Madhuban Constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

Chauhan served as a member of the upper house for the first time in 1996, when he was a prominent BSP leader. After this, he joined the SP in 2000 and represented the party in Rajya Sabha as well. Before the 2007 elections, he rejoined the BSP and resumed service in the Rajya Sabha in 2009.

In the 2012 elections, when Mayawati's BSP went out of power and SP took the charge in the state, Dara Singh decided to resort to the BJP. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on February 2, 2015, and was appointed as the National President of the Backward Castes Cell.

Thereafter, he won the Madhuban seat in the 2017 elections and became a cabinet minister in Yogi Adityanath's ministry in UP. For the last two years, the tensions between the party authorities and Chauhan were visible in several instances. He had complained of being marginalised in the party and was even not invited to a programme wherein the Union Home Minister had paid a visit to Azamgarh for an inauguration in November 2021.

The political chaos that has been going on in the UP BJP cabinet since yesterday has stirred the environment in the BJP. While several MLAs and leaders have already exited the cabinet, the matter is taking several obscure turns with the arrest of Maurya and allegations of abduction of another former BJP MLA Vinay Shakya.