NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Dara Singh Chauhan on Saturday resigned from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. An OBC leader from eastern UP, he was elected from the Ghosi seat in Mau district on the SP’s poll symbol.

Chauhan was a cabinet minister in the previous Yogi Adityanath government but had resigned ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections and joined the SP.

Earlier on Friday, Dara Singh met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence in Delhi. He is likely to join the BJP. In the Adityanath cabinet from 2017 to 2022, Chauhan was Cabinet minister for Forests, Environment and Animal Husbandry and later, resigned from the cabinet on January 12 in 2022 ahead of the assembly polls.

Chauhan started his political career with the BSP and later joined the SP. He was elected to Rajya Sabha for two terms in 1996 and 2000 and as per the website of Rajya Sabha, he was elected as an SP candidate and was also the party’s national executive member.