Jitin Prasada meets CM Yogi Adityanath in his first to UP after joining BJP

Prasada, who joined BJP 10 days ago, said he had come to take the blessings of the chief minister, adding that it was his first visit to his home state after joining the saffron party, said an ANI report.

"We discussed the future of welfare schemes, how to strengthen the party organisation, and how to take the party's message to the people," he was was quoted as saying by ANI.

The 47-year-old's admission into the BJP is being perceived as an attempt to balance its caste arithmetic in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2021 assembly polls.

Prasada belongs to a well-known Brahmin family of the state and was till recently serving as the West Bengal chief of Congress.

His father, the late Jitendra Prasada, was a well-known Congress leader who contested for the post of Congress President against Sonia Gandhi in 2000. He passed away in 2001. 

Prasada was one of the leaders who wrote to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, last October, seeking organisational overhaul and elections at all levels of the party.

He said his joining the BJP was based on the "people's wishes" and there is great enthusiasm among them for it.

"The BJP is the country's sole party where workers are encouraged and based on their performances they are given opportunities. I consider myself fortunate to be part of it," he told ANI.

It was being speculated during Lok Sabha elections of 2019 that Prasada would defect to BJP but it is believed that the Congress leadership was, somehow, able to retain him.