Crossover: Who are shifting camps

The four-time MP runs 48 colleges in Gonda, Faizabad, Balrampur, Shrawasti and Baharich, and claims these have raised the literacy rate, particularly of girls, thanks to fee relaxation for the poor. He opened the first three-star hotel in backward Gonda. And for 11 years, he has been holding talent searches in Devipatan on January 8, his birthday, with winners given cash and motorcycles. He is the president of the Wrestling Federation of India.

He has been a BJP MP three times, while his wife Ketaki Devi Singh too was a BJP MP in 1996 when he was in jail on charges of sheltering aides of Dawood Ibrahim. He has represented Gonda and Balrampur for the BJP, and the SP shifted him to Kaiserganj in 2009. The SP announced him again for Kaiserganj but he refused to contest, one of his reasons being the Muzaffarnagar riots.

His website still highlights his involvement in Ram Janmabhoomi Andolan in 1992 as an achievement. He was the first to be arrested in connection with that movement and the Babri mosque demolition. The CBI officer who arrested him was Satyapal Singh, who recently quit as Mumbai police commissioner and joined the BJP.

S P Singh Baghel

The BSP’s national general secretary and a Rajya Sabha member, Baghel joined the BJP during the weekend. He was a UP police officer for 10 years and he was also posted as security officer to Mulayam Singh Yadav (1989-91) and N D Tiwari (1988-89) when each was chief minister. He resigned in 1993 for a teaching job under the Higher Education Commission and and he still takes classes of defence studies in Agra College.

Mulayam gave him the Jalesar Lok Sabha ticket in 1998. He won, and held on 1999 and 2004s. When delimitation erased Jalesar, Baghel demanded Firozabad, dominated by Yadavs and Baghels, but Mulayam fielded Akhilesh Yadav. Baghel joined the BSP, lost to Akhilesh who was in alliance with Kalyan Singh. When Akhilesh resigned to become chief minister, Baghel contested against Dimple Yadav and Raj Babbar, and lost again. With Kalyan back in the BJP, Baghel has been inducted and is preparing to contest from Firozabad.

A former NCC cadet, he is an ace shooter, plays football and volleyball, and captain the cricket team of Government Nehru College, Madhya Pradesh, 1980.