Senior Samajwadi Party leader and former Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MP Ravi Prakash Verma, who resigned from the party on Friday last, will join the Congress here on Monday.
Former SP leader Verma to join Congress tomorrow
Senior Samajwadi Party leader and former Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MP Ravi Prakash Verma, who resigned from the party on Friday last, will join the Congress here on Monday.
Along with Verma, his daughter Purvi Verma will also join the party, said senior Congress leader Anil Yadav here on Sunday.
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Earlier in the day, Ravi Verma and his daughter Purvi met Congress president Mallikaarjun Kharge in New Delhi.
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Yadav said that 4 block chiefs, 9 district panchayat members and 50 heads will also join the Congress before state president Ajay Rai.
He said that many officials of SP, Peace Party, and AIMIM will also join the party tomorrow.
Ravi Verma, national General Secretary of SP, is regarded as a strong Kurmi leader with a strong influence in Lakhimpur Kheri district, which has a 35 per cent OBC vote out of 50 lakh population.
Verma has been a Member of Parliament from Kheri parliamentary seat twice and a Rajya Sabha MP once. In January 2023, he was appointed national General Secretary of the SP for the third time by national president Akhilesh Yadav, but after a few months, his rift with the SP came to the fore.
Since then, speculation had been going on that Ravi Verma might leave the SP before the Lok Sabha elections.
Ravi Prakash Verma’s mother, Usha Verma, was also an MP from 1984 to 1989. After that, Ravi Verma was elected as a Lok Sabha MP from 1998 to 2024 and the Rajya Sabha member from 2014 to 2020.
Purvi Verma, daughter of Ravi Prakash Verma, had also contested Lok Sabha elections from Kheri parliamentary seat on the SP ticket in 2019 but had to face defeat from sitting BJP MP Ajay Mishra.
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