Uttar Pradesh Mayoral Elections: On Last Day Of Nominations, SP's Candidate From Shahjahanpur Switches To BJP

In a setback to the Samajwadi Party, its mayoral candidate from Shahjanhanpur, Archana Verma, defected to the BJP on Sunday (April 23).

Verma’s crossing over comes 10 days after she was picked as the SP's candidate by Akhilesh Yadav. Her defection on the last day of filing nomination left SP scrambling for a replacement. She was a former Zila Panchayat Chairperson from Shahjahanpur on an SP ticket.

Welcoming her to the party, Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak said, “She was finding it difficult to associate herself with the party [SP]. She decided to join the party [BJP] on the call of nationalism given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that those who want to work for Mother India, should join the saffron party.”

Archana Verma hails from the Kurmi community and is the daughter-in-law of four-time SP MLA Ram Murti Verma. Verma was also a two-time MP from Shahjahanpur and a former minister in Akhilesh’s government.

He passed away in 2021. His son and Archana’s husband Rajesh Verma, contested from the Dadraul seat on an SP ticket but lost to BJP’s Manvendra Singh.

Shahjahanpur is set to go to polls in the second phase of Urban Body elections in UP on May 11. The counting of votes is going to take place on May 13. The seat is reserved for the Other Backward Class (OBC).

BJP also announced seven other mayoral candidates, including Pramila Pandey from Kanpur, Girishpati Tripathi from Ayodhya, Harikant Ahluwalia from Meerut, Sunita Dayal from Ghaziabad, Prashant Singhal from Aligarh and Umesh Gautam from Bareilly.

All the above seats go to polls in the second phase along with Shahjahanpur.