Former SP minister in UP files nomination for legislative council bypoll as BJP candidate

Chauhan was in the BJP before joining the SP and was made a minister in the first Yogi government between 2017 and 2022. The by-election will be held on January 30.

Lucknow: Former Uttar Pradesh minister Dara Singh Chauhan on Thursday filed his nomination papers for a bypoll to a seat in the state's legislative council as a BJP candidate.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday named Chauhan as its candidate for the bypoll, months after he lost an Assembly by-election.

Chauhan, a party-hopper, was elected as an MLA from Ghosi as a Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls but quit to join the BJP last year.

However, he failed to win the seat as a BJP candidate as his SP rival prevailed. Chauhan was in the BJP before joining the SP and was made a minister in the first Yogi government between 2017 and 2022.

Chauhan filed his nomination papers in the Vidhan Sabha in the presence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Ministers Brajesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya, UP BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary among other party leaders.

Chauhan comes from an extremely backward caste and the BJP's decision to field him for the MLC seat, which he is all but certain to win, underlines the party's efforts to keep its broad social coalition intact in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The by-election will be held on January 30.