Lucknow, Jun 15: About five MLAs suspended from the BSP in recent months met Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday, triggering speculation that they may join his party.
"The meeting with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, which lasted for 15-20 minutes, witnessed discussions on the upcoming UP Assembly elections, and it was a nice meeting," Sushma Patel, MLA from Mungra Badshahpur assembly constituency in Jaunpur district told PTI.
When asked about the future course of action, Patel said, "Personally, I have made up my mind to join the Samajwadi Party."
At present, there are 18 Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
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Hamirpur (UP) (PTI): Two persons, including a child, drowned and four went missing went missing after a boat capsized in the Yamuna river here, police said on Thursday.
They said the incident took place on Wednesday evening in Kutubpur Patiya hamlet under Bhauli gram panchayat in the Kurara police station area when nine people, not including the boatman, were returning from a river island.
According to police, the boat lost balance in the middle of the river and capsized around 7 pm.
The boatman, Dheeru, managed to rescue three people -- Vishnu, Rinku and Parul.
The remaining six --five children and a woman-- Akanksha (9), Rani (9), Brijrani (25), Labhyansh (5), Mahesh (6), and Aditya (11) -- went missing, police said.
Later on Thursday, rescue teams recovered the bodies of Akanksha and Brijrani (25.
SHO, Brijesh Kumar said that due to heavy rain since the morning, teams are facing difficulties in rescue operation.
District Magistrate Abhishek Goyal said a search for the missing is being conducted by teams of the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force.
Taking cognisance of the incident, Chief Minister Adityanath has directed the district administration to investigate the cause of the accident and put in place effective measures to prevent such incidents in future.
He has directed senior police and administrative officials to immediately reach the spot and ensure relief and rescue operations on a war footing, an official statement said.
Adityanath has called for rescue efforts to be intensified to trace the missing persons at the earliest and warned that any negligence in the matter would not be tolerated, it added.
The chief minister also instructed senior district officials to personally monitor the rescue operations and ensure all possible assistance to the affected families.
BJP MLA from Hamirpur Manoj Prajapati said attempts are on to trace the missing. "We will ensure compensation to the affected families in accordance with the rules and submit a report to the chief minister on the incident," he said.
