MLA who quit BJP says felt suffocated, obstructed; to join SP

MLA Roshan Lal Varma, who quit the Bharatiya Janata Party along with his supporters, on Wednesday said he had been feeling suffocated for the past five years as his work was being obstructed.

He said hurdles were being created in all the works he was doing for the welfare of the poor and the backward. 

Elected from Tilhar assembly seat in the district, Verma, who had left BJP on Tuesday, said that he will join the Samajwadi Party.

”There was dictatorship in the BJP as there is no one from the district up to the state level who would listen to what we had to say.

”On the contrary, Samajwadi Party is a party of poor workers, minorities and backwards,” Varma told PTI.

"I kept feeling suffocated in the party for five years because a minister belonging to the district created obstruction in every work. Whenever I raised the voice of the poor and labourers, I was suppressed, now I am quite happy," he said, apparently referring to senior BJP minister Suresh Khanna, also hailing from Shahjahanpur.

Varma said he will contest the coming election from Tilhar seat and the SP will form the next government.

He said under the BJP government his rights were violated for his entire five-year term.

Varma had resigned from the BJP alleging he was not heard in the party whenever he raised people's grievances.

"We had complained to the chief minister and also to state BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh," he said, claiming that unemployment has increased and the backward castes have been ignored by the BJP government.

”We flagged their issues, but no one heard us. A handful of officials run this government,” he had alleged.