BJP fields DS Chauhan for Ghosi assembly byelection

LUCKNOW: The BJP on Monday announced the candidature of Dara Singh Chauhan for the Ghosi bypoll, a month after he quit the Samajwadi Party and resigned from the UP Assembly to return to the saffron fold. The bypoll will be held on September 5 and result would be declared on September 8.
Chauhan, an OBC, had defected from the SP to join the BJP on July 17 after meeting Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi.If elected, he may be in the race for a ministerial berth in the Yogi cabinet.
A minister for forest, environment and animal husbandry in Yogi 2.1 government, Chauhan had switched to the SP before the 2022 assembly elections. Akhilesh fielded him from the Ghosi seat which he won by defeating BJP's Vijay Rajbhar by 22,000 votes.
Chauhan started his political career with the BSP and later joined the SP. He was BSP's Rajya Sabha MP from 1996-2000 and of SP from 2000-2006. He returned to the BSP and got elected to the LS from Ghosi in 2009. After losing to BJP's Harinarayan Rajbhar from Ghosi in the 2014 LS elections, Chauhan defected to the BJP in 2015. He was elected from the Madhuban assembly seat in 2017. On Sunday, the SP announced the candidature of former MLA Sudhakar Singh from Ghosi. Singh had won from the Ghosi seat in 2012 on the SP ticket. However, in 2017, he stood third as BJP's Fagu Singh Chauhan emerged victorious from this seat while jailed SBSP MLA Abbas Ansari, who had contested on BSP ticket, stood second.