BSP biggie quits over ‘ticket sale’

Lucknow, June 30

A week after senior BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya quit the party saying he felt “suffocated”, party chief Mayawati’s once trusted lieutenant and former minister RK Chaudhary today resigned, accusing her of “auctioning” tickets to contest Assembly polls in UP.

“During elections, ticket is allotted to a person who pays the highest amount,” he said at a press conference.

In a vitriolic attack on Mayawati, he said since the death of party founder Kanshi Ram, there had been a marked change in her working style and veteran leaders, who functioned with missionary zeal, were not given adequate weightage.

Chaudhary, 57, said Kanshi Ram had united different castes under one banner and evolved them into a group which could not be “sold” and due to his concerted efforts, a vote bank was created in all Assembly constituencies of the state.

“But after Kanshi Ram, Mayawati started eyeing this non-saleable vote bank and began selling tickets and BSP became a ‘mandi’ (wholesale market) for ticket selling...Under such circumstances, the party is no longer the mission of social change,” he said.

Alleging that the BSP had deviated from its ideology, Chaudhary said capitalists had now come to the forefront.

“I had to resign from the party out of compulsion...Many more will leave it in times to come,” he said, adding that he would hold a meeting of his supporters on July 11 and chalk out his future course of action.

Chaudhary was expelled by the BSP chief on July 21, 2001, for opposing the party’s stand on reservation to the most backwards and Dalits. He had, however, returned to the party on April 12, 2013. — PTI