Lucknow: Facing challenge on seats where voting would be held in the second phase of urban local body polls (ULB) on May 11, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) inducted several leaders, including many from western Uttar Pradesh, at the party headquarters here on Friday.

The joining, mainly of BSP leaders from west UP, wasn’t without reason as after the completion of the first phase polling in ULB on Thursday, the focus has now shifted to the second phase.

Seats going to polls in this phase include Meerut and Aligarh mayoral seats, which were won by the Bahujan Samaj Party in the 2017 urban local body polls that were held a few months after the assembly elections. Back then, the BSP had won 19 assembly seats against the Samajwadi Party’s 47. In the 2022 assembly polls, the BSP fared poorly, winning just a solitary seat against 111 of the Samajwadi Party.

Thus, the BJP leadership, aware of the fact that the BSP is looking at these elections to claw its way back into political reckoning ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, got several BSP leaders from west UP to defect.

The defectors included Bahujan Samaj Party’s divisional coordinator Govind Bhati from Meerut and chief of Akhil Bharatiya Brahmin Mahasabha Ankit Sharma who had contested on BSP ticket from Baraut. A former district chief of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) Kusum Chahar (Agra) also joined the BJP, as did Anoop Singh Baari, the state chief of Baari community from Ambedkarnagar. The RLD is SP’s ally and the two parties, despite the BJP’s domination have consistently done well in west UP. The BSP has fielded 11 Muslims on 17 mayoral seats, including Meerut and Aligarh.

After joining the BJP, the turncoats were unanimous that they did so because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s policies. “We joined because we believe in the leadership of PM Modi and CM Yogi,” Bhati said while exuding confidence that this time BJP would win all seats.

Deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak, who was present, also said that leaders from various political parties had been joining the BJP.

“It’s a party that offers everything, great leadership, policies, welfare schemes, pro-poor measures and all-round development. That’s a big reason why there is a long list of leaders from other parties wanting to join the party,” Pathak said.

The second-round seats also include Shahjahanpur, where people would be electing their mayor for the first time.

Ahead of the nominations, the BJP had got Archana Verma, SP’s mayoral candidate to join the BJP at the last moment and promptly declared her as their candidate. Ayodhya, where mayoral polls were held for the first time in 2017 and where the BJP has now fielded a temple priest for the mayoral post, also goes to polls in the second phase.

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