Yogi Adityanath has lost two cabinet ministers and at least five MLAs in two days, with senior minister Dara Singh Chauhan resigning on Wednesday and publicly terming the Uttar Pradesh government a “sinking ship”.

The departures have triggered concern within the BJP on the possibility of a revival of Mandal politics in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh elections from next month.

Like fellow OBC leader and labour minister Swami Prasad Maurya who quit on Tuesday, Chauhan accused Adityanath of refusing to cooperate with ministers and MLAs and discriminating against Dalits and OBCs. Sources said that like Swami Prasad, he was in touch with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.

MLA Avtar Singh Bhadana too announced he was quitting the BJP to join the Rashtriya Lok Dal, while fellow OBC legislator Vinay Shakya said he would join the Samajwadis. On Tuesday, one Dalit and two OBC MLAs — Brajesh Prajapati, Roshan Lal Verma and Bhagwati Sagar — had followed Swami Prasad out of the BJP, declaring they would join the Samajwadis.

Chauhan, who was minister for forests, environment and zoological gardens and president of the state BJP's OBC Morcha, wrote in his resignation letter to governor Anandiben Patel about the government’s “indifference towards the backward (castes), Scheduled Castes, farmers and unemployed”.

He told reporters: “I will decide my next move after a few days.”

Asked whether he had had differences with the chief minister, Chauhan said: “I have fought with them to give importance to the OBCs and the SCs but they ignored me arrogantly. They are a sinking ship….”

Chauhan had been Bahujan Samaj Party MP from Ghosi from 2009 to 2014 before joining the BJP in 2015 and getting elected from the Madhuban Assembly seat in Mau in 2017.

Arrest warrant

A court in Sultanpur on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant against Swami Prasad, being seen widely as the chief architect of the rebellion in the BJP.

A resident had registered a case against Swami Prasad in 2014 — when he was in the BSP — for an alleged remark on Hindu systems of worship. The court has asked the police to produce him on January 24.

Swami Prasad told reporters: “I shall join the Samajwadi Party on January 14, Makar Sankranti. I’m receiving calls from many BJP leaders but am avoiding any conversation with them at the moment. However, they will all be accommodated where I’m going.”

He accused the Adityanath government of violating the rules of reservation in government jobs.

“The chief minister decides without inviting applications for government jobs that there are no applicants from the OBC and SC categories,” he said.

“His officers issue notifications saying that in this situation, the vacant posts can be filled with general candidates. I have raised this issue on internal platforms, but now I can speak openly.”

A panicky attempt by the BJP to announce three new inductions — at a news conference in New Delhi on Wednesday morning — appeared to boomerang and stir dissent within its ranks.

Swatantra Dev Singh, Uttar Pradesh unit chief, gave party membership to Congress MLA Naresh Saini and Samajwadi leaders Dharampal Singh and Hariom Yadav — MLA from Sirsaganj and a relative of Mulayam Singh Yadav.

However, hundreds of supporters of the BJP MLA of Etmadpur in Agra, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan, gathered at his home and chanted slogans against Dharampal, whom Ram Pratap had defeated in 2017.

Ram Pratap asserted his RSS loyalties and accused Dharampal of corruption and “victimisation of BJP workers”.

UP CM Yogi Adityanath File Picture

A source said the MLA had been unhappy with Adityanath, “who never cooperated with him over development programmes”, and “might well join some other party as working under an incompetent and inexperienced chief minister is difficult”.

Vinay, MLA from Bidhuna in Etawah district, who had been “missing” for the past three days, appeared before the media at his home on Wednesday to say: “I’m going to leave the BJP and join the Samajwadis. The behaviour of the head of the government in Uttar Pradesh is non-cooperative and reflects his arrogance and inexperience.”

Vinay — who had suffered a stroke in 2018 and is still under treatment — was first elected from Bidhuna in 2002 on a BSP ticket. He joined the BJP in 2017.

Bhadana, MLA from Meerapur in Muzaffarnagar district, had earlier been elected Congress MP from Faridabad (Haryana) in 1991, 2004 and 2009 and from Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) in 1999.

Jayant Chaudhary, RLD president, tweeted: “Ex-MP & senior leader Shri Avtar Singh Bhadana ji joined (the) RLD today.”