Etah (Uttar Pradesh), Feb 28 : Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has declared sitting Etah MP Kunwar Devendra Singh as its candidate from the Etah parliamentary constituency.

Singh had left the Samajwadi Party on Friday and joined the BSP.

The BSP has gained six MPs from Samajwadi Party so far, the other ones being Shahid Siddiqui, who was elected to Rajya Sabha as Samajwadi Party candidate, Afzal Ansari from Ghazipur, Dhaniram Verma, Gauri Shanker, Kriti Vardhan Singh and Saif-ur-Rehman Barq.

Samajwadi Party sources claim that majority of the MPs left the party in recent times after being denied ticket for the coming Lok Sabha elections.

Afzal, brother of sitting MLA, Mukhtar Ansari, joined the BSP fold after being denied ticket by the SP from Ghazipur.

Mukhtar has been named as candidate from Varanasi by BSP and will contest against BJP''s Murli Manohar Joshi.

Saif-ur-Rehman had left SP in opposition to Mulayam Singh joining hands with the former BJP leader Kalyan Singh.

However, sitting MP from Gonda Kirti Vardhan Singh is the only one so far who has left the party despite being approved as a candidate by the Samajwadi Party. (ANI)