In a setback to the Samajwadi Party (SP), its MLC and former Uttar Pradesh minister Shatarudra Prakash joined the BJP at the saffron party's state headquarters here on December 31.
A socialist since his student days, Mr. Prakash joined the BJP in the presence of the party's state unit chief Swatantra Dev Singh.
Mr. Prakash, who joined politics while studying in the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), was elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1974 from Varanasi Cantonment as a Socialist Party nominee. Three years later, he was again elected from the same constituency as a Janata Party candidate.
Mr. Praksh won the polls as a Lok Dal candidate in 1985 and as a Janata Dal nominee in 1989. He was a cabinet minister in the Uttar Pradesh government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Mr. Prakash had praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the inauguration of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor. During the recent winter session of the state legislature, he congratulated Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the Legislative Council for making the Vishwanath Dham temple complex spacious and beautiful.
