Congress down to three MLAs in Uttar Pradesh as resignation spree continues ahead of assembly polls

Congress workers will be trained to make videos on their phone and upload them to the party’s main server so that leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra could use them to connect with people. (File image)

Masood Akhtar, the Congress MLA from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh said on January 12 that he has decided to join the Samajwadi Party (SP), nearly a month ahead of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

Akhtar said he will join the Akhilesh Yadav-led party along with Imran Masood, one of the tallest leaders of the Congress from Western Uttar Pradesh.

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Hours after Akhtar’s announcement, Naresh Saini, another Congress MLA from Behat in Saharanpur, joined the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), along with leaders from other parties, in Delhi. Saini and Akhtar are the latest to exit from the grand old party in the series of defections that began ahead of the 2014 general elections across the country.

With this, the Congress party has been reduced to three legislators in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh. The party had won seven seats in the 2017 assembly elections. Before Saini, Aditi Singh, MLA from Rae Bareli assembly seat, and Rakesh Singh, MLA from Harchandpur assembly seat, have joined the BJP.

The three remaining MLAs of the Congress are Ajay Kumar Lallu, the MLA from Tamkuhi Raj seat in Kushinagar who is also the President of UP Congress Committee (UPCC), Aradhna Misra ‘Mona’ from Rampur Khas, and Sohil Akhter Ansari from Kanpur Cant seat. Sources said Ansari is also on his way out and may join the SP soon.

Also, read: 35% of MPs/MLAs who switched parties between 2014-2021 joined BJP; most defectors from Congress: ADR report

The elections in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting February 10. The counting of votes will be held on March 10.

The BJP was the biggest gainer of defections while the Congress party suffered maximum with its leaders switching sides in elections held between 2014 and 2021, an analysis by election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) had found last year.

The Congress party saw 222 candidates, maximum among all parties, leaving the party to join other parties during the assembly and parliamentary elections held in this period, the findings in the report.