Dara Singh Chauhan, who resignined for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly as a Samajwadi Party MLA, rejoined the BJP in Lucknow on Monday. He 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 joined the SP in January last year after resigning from the Council of Ministers headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. Chauhan refused to elaborate when asked about the reasons that led to his resignation.


He did not mention any reason for stepping down in his letter, news agency PTI reported. Reacting to the development, SP's chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary told PTI, "The SP chief (Akhilesh Yadav) had reposed faith in him (Chauhan), given him a party ticket (in the 2022 Assembly polls) and also made him an MLA. Deceit is unfair and unethical in politics. It is a breach of trust." 


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An Other Backward Classes (OBC) leader, Chauhan was the minister for forests and environment in the first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government headed by Adityanath. He resigned from the Council of Ministers on January 12, 2022.


Chauhan represented the Madhuban Assembly constituency in Mau district from 2017 to 2022. He also represented the Ghosi seat in the 15th Lok Sabha for the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he was defeated by BJP candidate Harinarayan Rajbhar by more than 1.4 lakh votes. Chauhan had joined the BJP in 2015 and was appointed the party's OBC Morcha president and fielded from the Madhuban Assembly constituency.

(With inputs from PTI)