Samajwadi Leader Quits Party, Rajya Sabha; May Join BJP, Say Sources

Samajwadi Party parliamentarian Neeraj Shekhar today quit the Rajya Sabha and his party too. Neeraj Shekhar, the son of former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, is on his way to the ruling BJP, sources say.

The 50-year-old Samajwadi Party leader's Rajya Sabha term was till next year.

Sources say he could be nominated for the upper house by the BJP from Uttar Pradesh.

Neeraj Shekhar had contested and won from his father's Ballia constituency as a Samajwadi Party candidate in bypolls in 2007. In 2009, he was re-elected from the constituency.

His resignation leaves Akhilesh Yadav's party with only nine members in the Rajya Sabha besides five in the Lok Sabha. Sources say his rift with Akhilesh Yadav widened after he was denied the chance to contest again from Ballia in the recent national election.

Neeraj Shekhar's reported shift to the BJP follows the trend of one-way traffic from opposition parties to the BJP since the national election, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a huge mandate to continue for a second term.

The Congress recently lost most of its members in Goa and fears it will lose more in Karnataka, where several lawmakers have quit, leaving the Congress-Janata Dal Secular alliance government scrambling for numbers.