Two Samajwadi Party leaders join BJP ahead of 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls

New Delhi: Two Samajawadi Party leaders from Uttar Pradesh on Sunday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the Assembly polls in the state due next year.

SP's former Meerut Zila Panchayat president, Maninder Pal Singh, and Yuva Morcha state secretary, Rahul Yadav, joined the BJP along with their supporters in the presence of UP BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya at the party's headquarters here.

The entry of the two leaders in BJP will strengthen the party in the state, Maurya said.

Singh had contested Panchayat polls in 2011 as a BJP-backed candidate but had later switched over to SP to become the panchayat president.