Two days after resigning as Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA, Dara Singh Chauhan joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday in Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow. He joined the saffron party at around 12 pm in the presence of both Deputy Chief Ministers and the state party chief.
A day before resigning as SP MLA, Chauhan had also met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence in Delhi. Before joining the SP in 2022, he was part of the BJP and was also a cabinet minister in the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led state government from 2017 to 2022. He was Cabinet minister for Forests, Environment and Animal Husbandry and later, resigned from the cabinet on January 12 in 2022 ahead of the assembly polls.
Chauhan, the MLA from Ghosi in Mau district, submitted his resignation to Speaker Satish Mahana, Uttar Pradesh Assembly Principal Secretary Pradeep Dubey said in a statement. In his resignation letter, Chauhan said, "I, Dara Singh Chauhan, who is a member of the current Legislative Assembly from 354-Ghosi in Mau district, tender resignation from the membership of the Legislative Assembly." Chauhan refused to explain the reasons that led him to resign. In his letter too, he did not mention any reason for stepping down.
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Who is Dara Singh Chauhan?
- Dara Singh Chauhan was born on July 25, 1963, in Azamgarh district. He started his career from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
- He became a Rajya Sabha member for the first time in 1996 and the second time in 2000.
- He won the 2009 general election from the Ghosi Loksabha constituency as a candidate of the Bahujan Samaj Party.
- In 2015, he joined BJP and contested the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election from Madhuban Vidhansabha.
- Chauhan served as a cabinet minister in the UP government from 2017 to 2022
- In January 2022, he quit BJP and joined the Samajwadi party
- He contested the 2022 Assembly election on the SP ticket and was elected as MLA from the Ghosi seat
- He is a prominent OBC face in Uttar Pradesh politics
(With inputs from agencies)
