Uttar Pradesh: After Swami Prasad Maurya, three more MLAs quit BJP

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 11

In a major setback to the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh, top OBC leader and state minister Swami Prasad Maurya on Tuesday resigned from the Cabinet of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath alleging “grave oppression of Dalits, OBCs, farmers, unemployed and small businessmen” under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and joined Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party.

Soon thereafter three more MLAs, Roshan Lal Verma (Shahjahanpur), Brijesh Prajapati (Tindwari) and Bhagwati Sagar (Bilhaur), also tendered their resignations.   

Sources, in fact, say the next 48 hours (or till the time the official candidate list is announced) are crucial for the ruling BJP as more sitting MLAs may follow suit, a development that may negatively impact the party trying to return on the basis of planks like “development, law and order, social equality” during its rule.

BJP jolted on UP poll eve: Cabinet minister Swami Prasad Maurya quits, joins SP

Some of those threatening to leave are also believed to be ministers in the Adityanath government. “Maurya is trying to influence other ministers and MLAs”, sources say, adding that state leaders have been tasked to “talk to them”. 

Though according to BJP leaders, the majority of those “threatening to leave are the ones who know they are being dropped/replaced on the basis of their performance”.

“More than 25 per cent of the sitting MLAs are likely to be dropped. So far as Swami Prasad Maurya is concerned, he was kept out of important decision-making committees, meaning that the leadership was aware and this (resignation) was expected,” they say.

Home Minister Amit Shah also had a “detailed talk with him during his last visit to UP”, they say, claiming that Maurya was asking for “25-30 tickets for his supporters”.

However, coming just a couple of days before the poll-plan for the first phase gets rolling, Maurya’s exit is an embarrassment for the BJP which is trying to build its case among other backward classes (largely non-Yadav OBCs) and Dalits.

Announcing his resignation Maurya said, “Despite a divergent ideology, I worked with dedication in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet. But because of the grave oppression of Dalits, OBCs, farmers, unemployed and small businessmen, I am resigning”. 

After resigning, he said, “Ab pata chalega, Swami Prasad Maurya kaun hai. Main jahan rahunga wahan sarkar banegi (now it will be known that who is Swami Prasad. The next government will be formed wherever I am)”.

An OBC strongman, Maurya served as Minister of Labour, Employment and Coordination in the Adityanath’s cabinet.

The defection comes as a shot in the arm for Akhilesh Yadav who is trying to project himself as the leader of all backward communities.

Akhilesh Yadav has been actively wooing non-Yadav OBCs, who constitute 35% of the OBC population in the state by stitching alliances with smaller caste-based parties like the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), the Janwadi Socialist party (JSP) and the Mahan Dal, and resolving issues with uncle Shivpal Yadav.

“Saamajik nyay ka inqalab hoga, baees me badlav hoga (There will be social justice and change in 2022),” said Akhilesh, welcoming Maurya.

Interestingly, before he joined the BJP, the 68-year-old Maurya was considered a confidant of BSP chief Mayawati. He left the BSP, alleging “auctioning” of party tickets before the 2017 Assembly elections. Though according to BSP leaders, Maurya jumped ship after Mayawati declined to concede to his demand of tickets for his supporters and family members.   

He is a five-time MLA from Padrauna, while his daughter Sanghmitra Maurya is a BJP MP from Badaun in the Lok Sabha.

Maurya's daughter and BJP's Badaun MP Sanghamitra Maurya, however, claimed that her father has not joined any party and will reveal his strategy in a couple of days.

The Samajwadi Party tweeted a photo of Maurya and Verma with Akhilesh Yadav, welcoming them in the party 

Sanghamitra said while that her father has resigned, he has not joined Samajwadi Party or any other political party yet.

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