By IANS
Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, whose Bahujan Samaj Party had witnessed large-scale defections during her past stints, now seems to be ready to beat her adversaries at their game as two legislators Wednesday switched loyalties and joined her party.
Samajwadi Party legislator Kazim Ali Khan resigned to join the ruling party and so did Ram Sewak Singh, the lone legislator from Uma Bharti's Bharatiya Janshakti Party.
At a hastily organised press conference, the two legislators praised BSP chief Mayawati.
Though Khan claimed that there was no quid pro quo, political observers said he might have offered his Swar-Tanda seat in Rampur district to Mayawati, who needs to be elected to the state legislature within six months of her assumption of office.
Khan, who has a track record of jumping fences, began his career with the Congress, only to switch sides to the BSP that made him a minister. When the government headed by Mayawati was ousted, Khan crossed over to the Samajwadi Party – only to bounce back to the BSP now.
Khan, a scion of the erstwhile royal family of Rampur, said: "I never switched sides for any personal gains.
"It was because of personal reasons that I decide to change my party," clarified Khan, whose mother Begum Noor Bano was a Congress MP.
He said he was disillusioned with the Samajwadi Party thanks to Azam Khan, a minister in the previous government.
"What pained me even more was (then) chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's helplessness before Azam Khan's despotic ways. Mulayam refused to pay any heed to my repeated complaints about Azam's attitude. The worst part came when the chief minister turned a blind eye to Azam's bid to sabotage my election by putting up a rebel candidate against me," Khan said.
"Today I also have reason to believe that there was some secret understanding between Samajwadi Party and the BJP," he added.
Said Ram Sewak Singh, a BJP legislator for the past four terms from Binawar in Budaun district: "I was inspired to switch over to BSP because it has done unparalleled work for the upliftment and welfare of the (OBC) Kurmi community to which I belong."
He said he was "highly impressed" by Mayawati's speeches during the campaign ahead of the assembly elections that concluded this month.
Mayawati's trusted ministers Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Babu Singh Kushwaha were also present at the press conference. "We heartily welcome both Kazim Ali Khan and Ram Sewak Singh in the BSP," Siddiqui said.