One more minister from Uttar Pradesh BJP, two MLAs resign

- Prime Minister Modi took the helm on the issue of ticket distribution in Uttar Pradesh

- After OBC minister Maurya, a total of 14 ministers-MLAs split with BJP, will join SP: Yogi Adityanath will contest assembly elections for the first time from Ayodhya

- OBC-Brahmin leaders are resigning as they are disillusioned with BJP: Vinay Shakya

- Brainstorming for 94 seats for first two phases in BJP

LUCKNOW: The issue of resignation of BJP ministers and MLAs in Uttar Pradesh ahead of assembly elections in February does not seem to have abated since Tuesday. On Thursday, the BJP resigned for the fourth time and the 14th in the last four days. In the Yogi government, AYUSH Minister Dharmasinh Saini, MLA Vinay Shakya from Auraiya to Bahidhuna and MLA Mukesh Verma from Shikohabad resigned on Thursday. With this, in just three days, 14 leaders have split with BJP.

Uttar Pradesh BJP is likely to resign in the coming days. Dharmasinh Saini, Vinay Shakya and Mukesh Verma have also resigned from the BJP's primary membership. These MLAs are considered close to Swami Prasad Maurya. "We will go wherever Swami Prasad Maurya says," he said. Thus, along with Swami Prasad Maurya, these ministers-legislators are also likely to join the Samajwadi Party.

Apart from this, MLA Bala Prasad Awasthi from Lakhimpur Khiri is also waiting to leave BJP. Amid the wave of resignations of ministers and MLAs from the BJP, Swami Prasad Maurya retweeted and said that he would only breathe a sigh of relief when the nationalist RSS and the nationalist BJP were eliminated from Uttar Pradesh. On the other hand, BJP MLA Sitaram Verma from Sultanpur Sadar denied reports of BJP quitting. "I will never leave the BJP and join the Samajwadi Party," he said.

In the last three days after the announcement of Uttar Pradesh Assembly election dates, the BJP has been hit one after another. In three days, eight MLAs, including three ministers, have resigned from the BJP.

Leaders quitting the BJP have claimed that OBC and Brahmin leaders have become disillusioned with the party. He accused the BJP of grossly neglecting the leaders of OBCs, Dalits, backward and minority communities.

After Dharmasinh Saini resigned from the BJP, SP President Akhilesh Yadav tweeted, "We are very excited about the arrival of a social justice warrior in the SP, more than the arrival of Dharmasinh Saini."

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken the helm of ticket distribution in Uttar Pradesh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also joined the meeting for the first time on Thursday to decide the names of candidates for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. An all-day meeting on ticket distribution in the Uttar Pradesh elections was held at the BJP headquarters in Delhi on Wednesday. A series of meetings were also held on Thursday for this, in which besides the Prime Minister, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari joined online. Home Minister Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma were present at the headquarters.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be contesting the Assembly elections from Ayodhya for the first time. The BJP's election committee has sealed the issue of fighting Yogi Adityanath from Ayodhya. The meeting discussed the names of candidates for 9 out of 112 seats in the first two phases of Uttar Pradesh. The party president JP Nadda was given the power to decide the names of the other 12 candidates.