At least two of the seven MLAs suspected to have cross-voted visited the temple on Thursday.
Earlier this month, UP MLAs across parties had visited the Ram temple along with chief minister Yogi Adityanath. However, SP MLAs were directed to give the trip a miss whereas two Congress MLAs went ahead with the visit.
“I was the person who had demanded in the all-party meeting that a visit to the Ram temple be facilitated for all the legislators of UP but it is unfortunate that against our wishes we had to stay back. It was our chief’s direction that no MLA would visit the temple whereas most MLAs wanted to. If, in a party or anywhere, one is stopped from darshan of Lord Ram, nothing can be more unfortunate than this,” said Manoj Pandey, SP MLA from Unchahar, Raebareli, a prominent Brahmin face of the party and close aide of Akhilesh Yadav who resigned as chief whip ahead of polling on Tuesday.
Pandey, along with SP MLA from Bisauli in Badaun, Ashutosh Maurya, visited the Ram temple on Thursday. Pandey also met CM Adityanath. Five of the seven SP MLAs suspected to have cross-voted belong to forward castes. While Yadav has declared they will be ousted from the party, no action has been taken against them yet.
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