On May 1, Narendra Singh Yadav, a six-time Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA from the Amritpur assembly seat in Farrukhabad, switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), giving Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) yet another setback.
He is the son of former minister Rajendra Singh Yadav and was seven times MLA from Shamshabad and Mohammadabad assembly constituency in the Farrukhabad District. He won his first assembly election in 1985 and became a MLA. In Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Government in 1996, he became a minister for the first time and also in 2012 during the tenure of Akhilesh Yadav’s Government.
Narendra Singh Yadav joined the BJP at the state party office in Lucknow alongside his daughter, Mona Yadav, Chairperson of Zila Panchayat, chairperson, and son Sachin Singh Yadav in the presence of Brajesh Pathak, Deputy Chief Minister.
In addition to Yadav, KK Sachan also joined BJP. He was the former BSP national general secretary and state president. Though, in 2020, he switched to SP.
In 2007 when Mayawati came to power with a full majority for the first time, Sachan got elected as an MLA from the Mariahu assembly seat on the BSP ticket.
However, in the 2012 Assembly election, he did not contest because Mariahu’s seat was dissolved due to a delimitation exercise.
In 2017, he ran again as a BSP candidate for the Tulsipur seat but finished fourth with barely 12 per cent of the votes.
However, Yadav’s defection was significant because he was close to SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh’s uncle, senior SP leader Shivpal Yadav. In fact, he was the vice president of the Yadukul Punarjagran Mission.
In 2014, he was sacked from the minister’s position in Akhilesh Yadav’s Government in the State when his son Sachin Singh Yadav contested independently against an SP-fielded candidate in Farrukhabad Lok Sabha Constituency during the general elections.
In the 2017 Assembly elections, Narendra lost the Amritpur seat to BJP candidate Sushil Shakya. As per the reports, it was claimed that his defeat was caused by internal strife within the party. After SP denied him a ticket to run in the 2022 Assembly elections, he decided to run as an independent. He finished fourth, losing to Shakya for the second time.
Hari Om Yadav, Mulayam’s close relative, moved to the BJP in 2022. However, he was defeated by SP’s Sarvesh Singh in the Firozabad assembly seat of Sirsaganj.
Last month April 23, Archana Verma, the daughter-in-law of SP MLA and former UP minister Ram Murti Verma and SP’s mayor candidate, defected to the BJP party in Shahjahanpur. On May 1, Shahjahanpur will vote in the second phase of the Urban Local Bodies elections.
