Having been denied a ticket from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the November 17 state assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, BJP MLA Narayan Tripathi on Friday formally quit the party and also resigned from his state assembly membership.
Tripathi, 60, was not getting along well with the BJP for the past three years as aspersions were cast on him over his alleged links with the Opposition Congress.
A Brahmin leader from the Vindhya region of the state, Tripathi had recently floated his own political outfit, called the Vindhya Janata Party (VJP).
After resigning from the BJP, Tripathi alleged that the BJP practices double standards and its actions are opposite to what it says. He also asserted that his new party has a strong foothold in the Vindhya region and he would contest with full might in the region with the aim to defeat the BJP.
Tripathi has been known to frequently change his political associations. He has been MLA from the BJP twice and he has also been an MLA of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) once each.