No one from 'Saifai family' allowed to join BJP: Keshav Prasad Maurya

On a day when Akhilesh-loyalist Ramgopal Yadav was sacked from the SP amid allegations of "colluding with BJP", the saffron party's state president Keshav Prasad Maurya made it clear that no one from the "Saifai family" would be allowed to join it.

"No one from the Saifai family will be allowed to join the party. There is total prohibition on that," Maurya said when asked whether Ramgopal would be joining BJP. He said the BJP may approach Governor Ram Naik over the prevailing political situation in Uttar Pradesh and request him to stop the Samajwadi Party government from taking any policy decision.

On a day of fast-paced political developments, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his party supremo and father Mulayam Singh were engaged in an open face-off, sacking each other's loyalists Shivpal and Ramgopal Yadav. Hours after his sacking, Shivpal announced that the SP chief had expelled Ramgopal from the party for six years.

Shivpal told mediapersons that Ramgopal was colluding with BJP and had thrice met a senior leader of the saffron party to save himself and his son from a CBI probe in connection with alleged involvement in the Yadav Singh Noida scam probe.

Maurya said that the people of Uttar Pradesh were aware that the current tension in Samajwadi Party was borne out of a dispute over money and expressed confidence that BJP would be voted to power with absolute majority in the fast approaching 2017 Assembly polls.