LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party’s Rajya Sabha member Chaudhary Sukhram Singh Yadav recently met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath triggering speculations about his plans to join the Bharatiya Janata Party in the near future.
A former chairman of the legislative council, Sukhram and his family met Yogi in Lucknow and he presented a book authored by his father Chaudhary Harmohan Singh. Sukhram’s son Mohit Yadav, who was also present at the meeting, had formally joined BJP in January this year.
While attempts to reach out to Sukhram Singh Yadav proved futile, his son Mohit Yadav did not respond to media queries questions about his father joining BJP.
Speculations that Sukhram might join BJP stem from reports that he has been maintaining distance from SP for quite some time now. So much so that despite being from Kanpur Dehat, Sukhram stayed away from SP chief Akhilesh Yadav's Vijay Rath Yatra which was launched in Kanpur.
In October 2021, Sukhram had made headlines for releasing a poster carrying photographs of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and CM Yogi Adtiyanath to mark the birth centenary of his father Harmohan Songh Yadav. Sukhram had then claimed that he admires Mulayam as a politician and Yogi Adityanath for the 'outstanding work' that he had done as chief minister.
The developments come at a time when SP chief Akhilesh Yadav's estranged uncle Shivpal Yadav has already expressed serious displeasure over the manner in which he was being treated within SP. This was followed by unconfirmed reports that Shivpal met senior BJP leaders in Delhi and was likely to side with the saffron party in the near future.
Besides, SP leadership is also under attack from Muslim leaders within the party who are irked over Akhilesh's silence over issues related to the community.
While MP Shafiqur Rehman Barq had said that a section of the party was not doing enough for Muslims, party veteran Azam Khan's media advisor Fasahat Khan has accused Akhilesh of not standing firmly with Azam Khan who is in jail since February 2020 after being booked in over a 100 criminal cases.
