Lucknow: In a boost to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav three days before he seeks a trust vote in the Assembly, 14-15 dissident Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs on September 5 held a closed-door meeting and later said they would form a new party to formalise a split.

The meeting discussed the course of action and decided to meet Speaker Kesari Nath Tripathi on or before September 8, when Yadav proves his majority in the House, and formalise the split, senior dissident leader Virendra Singh told reporters after the meeting.

He said they would soon float a new outfit to be christened Loktantrik Bahujan Party.

The dissident MLAs later met state Samajwadi Party president Ram Saran Das and pledged support to Yadav.

Ram Saran Das, when contacted, said he was confident that more than 40 MLAs of the 110-member BSP legislature group would soon formalise the split.

BSP Legislature Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya had on September 4 filed a petition before the Assembly Speaker seeking the disqualification of 13 MLAs who had asked Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri to invite Yadav to form the government.

PTI