The exodus of OBC leaders from the BJP continued on Thursday as another Minister Dharam Singh Saini, the third in three days, and four legislators resigned from the party showing allegiance to Swami Prasad Maurya. Maurya’s resignation from the Cabinet on Tuesday has triggered the exodus.
Interestingly, Saini, who held the Ayush portfolio and was considered close to Swami Prasad Maurya, had refuted reports of leaving the saffron party barely a day ago.
The day Maurya resigned he said, “I am with BJP and if Maurya has given his name as defector this is wrong.”
The four legislators who resigned from the primary membership of the BJP on Thursday are Dr Mukesh Verma, Bala Prasad Awasthi, Vinay Shakya and Avtar Singh Bhadana. They have accused the party leadership of ignoring the interests of the Dalits, backward classes, and farmers. Bhadana has joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal.
“During the tenure of five years by the BJP Government, no attention was given to the leaders and public representatives of the Dalit, backward and minority communities, and these communities were neglected,” Verma, a backward caste leader, wrote in his resignation letter. “Hence, I resign from the primary membership of the BJP.
As many as three BJP Ministers and 13 MLAs, most of them hailing from the OBC community, have quit 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, R K Sharma, and Bala Prasad Awasthi.
Maurya who resigned from the state Cabinet on Tuesday is likely to join Samajwadi Party on Friday. “Just wait and see as how many people will join with me,” he told reporters.
Earlier in the day he had, in another tweet said: “I will start a new political inning on January 14”.
Later in the day Maurya along with some legislators who had resigned from BJP visited Lohia Trust and met Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav. The meeting continued for over half an hour.
Coming out of that meeting Maurya tweeted to call RSS as Naag and BJP as Saap and himself as Nevla (mongoose) that will destroy them.