In a blow to the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP), two of its senior party leaders on Saturday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

Former Transport Minister in the Akhilesh Yadav-led government and many time legislator Raja Aridaman Singh hitched the bandwagon in presence of the state BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya.

The district Cooperative Bank chairperson and declared SP candidate for the Khairagarh assembly seat, Pakshalika Singh, also joined the BJP, expressing his faith in the party policies and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Welcoming the leaders into the party fold, Maurya said it was good that leaders of other parties were deserting their parties due to their "wrong policies" and migrating to the BJP, which was a nationalistic party with development as its core agenda.

Uttar Pradesh will go to the polls in seven phases between February 11 and March 8.

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