Samajwadi Party MLC Swami Prasad Maurya on Tuesday resigned as the party’s national general secretary.
Maurya accused SP president Akhilesh Yadav of discrimination, saying his statements were termed as ‘my private opinion’ by the senior party leaders while the statements of another national general secretary were accepted as the official line of the party.
In his resignation letter to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Maurya said he would continue to work to strengthen the party without any post.
Announcing his resignation on social media platform X, Maurya said that he would be stepping down from the post of SP national general secretary.
Maurya, who is a member of the state legislative council, posted a copy of his resignation letter on social media platform.
Maurya, a party hopper, was in Bahujan Samaj Party for over two decades. He was leader of opposition in UP assembly from 2012-17 during the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP government. In 2017, he deserted the BSP and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. He contested the 2017 state assembly election as BJP candidate. He was inducted as cabinet minister in Yogi Adityanath government 1.0.
Ahead of the 2022 UP assembly election he defected to the SP and unsuccessfully contested the assembly election from Fazilnagar assembly constituency in Deoria district of eastern UP.
His daughter, Sanghmitra Maurya, is BJP MP from Budaun Lok Sabha constituency.
Soon after the assembly elections he was nominated to the UP Legislative Council by SP president Akhilesh Yadav. Later he was elevated as the national general secretary of the party.
Maurya has, since January 2023, been spearheading a campaign against Ramcharitmanas, claiming that a particular verse in the epic is anti-Scheduled Casts, anti-Other Backward Classes and anti-tribals and should be deleted. Besides controversial remarks on Ramcharitmanas, he also criticised the consecration of Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22 and described the Sanatan Dharm as ‘dhokha’ (hoax).