After stints with BJP and SP, Ravi Dutt Mishra joins Congress on Day-1 of polls in Uttar Pradesh; gets inducted by Priyanka Vadra

In yet another case of netas jumping ship ahead on account of the Lok Sabha elections which got underway with Phase 1 on Thursday, Ravi Dutt Mishra who was previously a member of the BJP and then the Samajwadi Party has joined the Congress Party. Mishra who was earlier a minister in the Samajwadi Party-led Uttar Pradesh government joined the Congress Party in the presence of Congress general secretary UP (East), Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Mishra is the latest in a string of ministers who have changed sides before the poll battle. A week ago, Samajwadi Party MP from Gorakhpur Praveen Kumar Nishad joined the BJP. SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav had termed it as a 'ghaatey ka sauda' (loss-making deal) for the saffron party and also alleged that money changed hands. He had said that in the by-poll held last year, the people of Gorakhpur parliamentary constituency had voted for the SP-BSP alliance and not for Praveen Nishad.

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In another instance of party change, Arjun Charan Sethi, the 78-year-old Biju Janata Dal MP and a former Union Minister, had resigned from the regional party after he was denied the ticket to contest in this Lok Sabha election. He had then joined BJP along with his son Abhimanyu Sethi. BJD president Naveen Patnaik had replaced him from Bhadrak Lok Sabha Constituency with Manjulata Mandal, wife of sitting party MLA Muktikant Mandal.

Before Mishra jumped three major political parties, Harinder Singh Khalsa a former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) member, then a lawmaker of the AAP in 2014, joined the BJP on March 28 in the presence of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

"He has played a key role in raising issues concerning the lower class people in both national and international platforms,'' Jaitley said.

Uttar Pradesh will vote in all seven phases of the Lok Sabha which are scheduled to be held on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. Counting will be done on May 23.