New Delhi: Samajwadi Party National General Secretary Ashok Pradhan on Friday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with a number of his supporters at the BJP central office here.

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Pradhan, a former Union Minister of State and BJP MP, called it "ghar wapsi" (returning home).

Pradhan was elected to the Lok Sabha from Noida-Khurja seat as a BJP member in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004, and also served as a Minister of State in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

Pradhan said that he was feeling "suffocated" in the Samajwadi Party as its government had unleashed loot in Uttar Pradesh, the health services are in shambles and land and mining mafia was active.

"There is poverty all around, law and order is in shambles and casteism has poisoned the whole politics. Only the BJP can rid the state of Uttar Pradesh from these malaise," he said.