Maya's pick: 50% of BSP candidates are party-hoppers

LUCKNOW: The BSP is turning out to be the first port-of-call for all turncoats. Of the 80 candidates it has short-listed for the Lok Sabha elections, nearly 50% switched over to BSP in May 2007 when it came to power in UP. Around 20 have joined BSP in the last two months.
If Naresh Agarwal, a known party hopper who came to BSP via SP in May 2008, will be contesting from Farrukhabad, Akhilesh Das, who left Congress to join BSP last year, played safe by securing a seat in Rajya Sabha but on Behenji's direction will contest from Lucknow.
It's not just bigwigs known for their money power that Maya has sought; she has also opened the doors for listed gangsters like Aruna Shankar Shukla, who owes his entry into politics to Mulayam Singh Yadav. Shukla ditched Yadav in November 2008 and would now be BSP's candidate from Unnao.
Another mafia don-turned-politician, Mukhtar Ansari, who won the assembly election from Mau with SP's support, will be BSP candidate from Varanasi. His brother Afzal, who won the 2004 Lok Sabha election as an SP loyalist, would be BSP's candidate from Ghazipur.