NEW DELHI, Mar 21
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, former MP Budh Sen Patel, ex-BJP MLA Narayan Tripathi and Congress member Laxman Ahirwar joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday.
They have been influenced by BSP chief Mayawati’s leadership, state party head Ramakant Pippal told PTI after their induction into the party-fold here.
Patel, Tripathi and Ahirwar are likely to be considered for the BSP’s ticket for Rewa, Satna and Tikamgarh parliamentary constituencies, respectively, sources said.
Asked about their chances of contesting the elections as BSP candidates, Pippal said, “Mayawatiji takes such calls. I can’t comment on the matter.” On when the BSP will announce its candidates, he said the party will declare its nominees for all the 29 Lok Sabha seats in MP soon.
Patel had won the assembly election from Rewa and Lok Sabha poll from Rewa in 1993 and 1996, respectively, as the BSP nominee. He later joined the BJP.
Before the 2023 assembly elections, he joined the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) of K Chandrashekar Rao. “It was Patel’s homecoming,” Pippal said. Tripathi has been a four-time MLA – once as independent and three other times from the Samajwadi Party, Congress and BJP. In October last year, he quit the BJP and floated his political outfit Vindh Janata Party, which contested the 2023 MP assembly polls unsuccessfully.
Tripathi, a Brahmin leader from Vindh, lost the assembly polls from Maihar seat in Satna district last year. Laxman Ahirwar is the son of late Nathuram Ahirwar, who was the Congress MP from Khajuraho seat from 1966 to 1977 and had also been a minister in Madhya Pradesh.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BSP failed to open its account.
The Mayawati-led party also failed to win a single seat in polls to the 230-member MP assembly last November.
Elections to the 29 Lok Sabha seats in MP will be held in four phases from April 19 to May 13 and votes will be counted on June 4.
