Former Uttar Pradesh Ministers Swami Prasad Maurya and Dharam Singh Saini, who resigned this week from the Yogi Adityanath government and the ruling BJP ahead of Assembly polls, have joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) on January 14 in the presence of the party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Along with the former Ministers, the sitting MLAs Bhagwati Sagar, Vinay Shakya, Roshan Lal Verma, Mukesh Verma, and Brajesh Kumar Prajapati have also joined SP.

Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections will be held in seven phases. Polling will be held from February 10 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10.