The exodus of Other Backward Classes leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party continued on Thursday as another minister, Dharam Singh Saini, the third in three days, and four legislators resigned from the party expressing solidarity with veteran leader Swami Prasad Maurya who jumped off the saffron bandwagon on Tuesday.
Interestingly, Saini, who held the AYUSH portfolio and was considered to be close to Swami Prasad Maurya, had refuted reports of leaving the BJP barely a day ago. The day Maurya resigned Saini had said: “I am with the BJP and if Maurya has given my name as a defector it is wrong.”
The four legislators who resigned on Wednesday include Dr Mukesh Verma, Bala Prasad Awasthi, Vinay Shakya and Avtar Singh Bhadana. They resigned from the primary membership of the party, accusing it of ignoring the interests of Dalits, backward classes, and farmers.
Bhadana has joined Rashtriya Lok Dal.
All the legislators who resigned on Thursday also accused the BJP of undermining the interests of Dalit community, farmers, unemployed persons, and small entrepreneurs.
“During BJP’s five-year tenure, no attention was given to the leaders and public representatives of Dalits, Backwards and minority communities, and these communities were neglected. Hence, I resign from the primary membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party,” Verma, a OBC leader, wrote in his resignation letter.
As many as three BJP ministers and 13 MLAs, most of them from the OBC community, have quit the party in one week, triggering panic within the party and altering its electoral scene in the key state. The leaders who quit the BJP are Swami Prasad Maurya, Bhagwati Sagar, Roshan Lal Verma, Vinay Shakya, Avtar Singh Bhadana, Dara Singh Chauhan, Brijesh Prajapati, Mukesh Verma, Rakesh Rathore, Jai Chaubey, Madhuri Verma, RK Sharma and Bala Prasad Awasthi.
Maurya, who resigned from the Yogi Adityanath cabinet on Tuesday, is likely to join the Samajwadi Party on Friday.
“Just wait and see how many people will join me,” he told reporters. Earlier in the day, he posted a tweet saying: “I will start a new political inning on January 14.”
Later in the day, Maurya along with some legislators who resigned from BJP, visited Lohia Trust and met Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, and the meeting continued for over half an hour. Coming out of that meeting Maurya tweeted and termed Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as ‘naag’ and the BJP as ‘saanp’ and himself as ‘nevla’ (mongoose) that would destroy them.