Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls: Minutes after resigning from BJP, Swami Prasad Maurya joins Samajwadi Party

Lucknow: In a major development, the well-known backward face of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a minister in Yogi Cabinet, Swami Prasad Maurya, has resigned from the party. Maurya would be joining the Samajwadi Party and met former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav soon after resigning.

Maurya, labour and employment minister in the UP government, has accused Yogi government of ignoring Dalits, backwards, farmers, unemployed youth and the MSME sector. Maurya said that despite adverse conditions and having a different ideology, he performed his duties in a responsible manner, but now things have become difficult.

After Maurya’s resignation, Yadav welcomed his move and said that very soon more like-minded people might join the SP.

Taking a cue from Maurya, BJP legislator from Kanpur rural Bhagwati Prasad Sagar and Roshan Lal Verma from Tilhar assembly segment in Shahjahanpur might also say good-bye to the BJP. Both these legislators had reached the residence of Swami Prasad soon after the later submitted his resignation.

Meanwhile, the BJP has gone into damage control. According to BJP sources, Home Minister Amit Shah and a few other top leaders have spoken to Swami Prasad Maurya, to persuade him to change his mind. The BJP leadership is also reaching out to other leaders of backward communities, to prevent them from making similar moves.

Swami Prasad Maurya was earlier in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and leader of the opposition in 20012-2017. He had left the BSP just before 2017 assembly polls. His daughter Sanghmitra Maurya is a sitting BJP MP from Badaun.