4 BJP MLAs too resign, all set to join Akhilesh
In a major setback for the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh, State Cabinet Minister for Labour, Employment, and Coordination Swami Prasad Maurya resigned from the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet along with four party MLAs here on Tuesday.
They are all set to join the Samajwadi Party
Maurya, a tall OBC leader representing the numerically dominant Kushwahas, had joined the BJP in 2017 after quitting the BSP, where he was second to Mayawati.
“I am now resigning from the UP Cabinet in the wake of severe discrimination and neglect of the poor, farmers, marginalised, unemployed in the State,” Maurya said in his resignation letter to Governor Anandi Ben Patel, which was released to the Press.
He further said in his letter, “I tried my best to work for the welfare of people in UP despite ideological differences with the BJP.
Maurya’s exit, days ahead of seven-phase State election, starting February 10, spells trouble for the BJP which seeks to appeal to all other backward classes and therefore exercise began to control the damage.
Sources claim that senior BJP leaders are in touch with Maurya.
Maurya has so far denied he has joined the Samajwadi Party. “I will let you know about my future plans within a day or two,” he said.
But by evening, SP president Akhilesh Yadav twitted a picture of him with Maurya. Later he wrote, “Saamajik nyay kaa inqalab hoga, baaes me badlav hoga (There will be a revolution in the field, or social justice and there will be change).”
Maurya’s leaving BJP was an indicator of crumbling of rainbow coalition of backwards, upper caste and Dalits, which the BJP had built assiduously in last many years. But the message went that backwards were being neglected in the party.
There were rumours that many senior BJP legislators might join the Samajwadi Party. The list included Maurya’s name, but party leadership preferred to ignore that.
Incidentally, Maurya’s daughter Sanghamitra Maurya is BJP Lok Sabha member from Badaun. His son too contested the 2017 polls on BJP ticket from Dalmau in Rae Bareli, but lost to SP candidate Manoj Kumar Pandey.
Meanwhile, while reacting to the resignation of Maurya, BJP’s Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya appealed to him to reconsider his decision.
In a tweet Maurya, who is in Delhi to attend the BJP Parliamentary Board meeting on Tuesday said, “Respected Swami Prasad Maurya, for what reasons you have resigned, I do not know. But I appeal to you to sit and talk as such hasty decisions often prove to be wrong.”
After Maurya resigned from the Yogi Ministry, three dissident BJP lawmakers and supporters of Maurya tendered their resignation from the party.
The MLAs, who have put on their papers are Brajesh Prajapati (Tindwari in Banda), Bhagwati Prasad Sagar (Bilhaur in Kannauj), and Roshan Lal Verma (Tilhar in Shahjahanpur), and Vinay Shakya.
“We have sent our resignation in support of Maurya to party high command,” Roshan Lal Verma told reporters here on Tuesday.
Verma said Swami Prasad Maurya is their leader and they will act per his order.
Incidentally, none of them have so far joined the SP as all of them are waiting for Swami Prasad Maurya. “If he joins the SP we will join with him,” Verma said.
All the MLAs, who had joined the BJP from BSP before the 2017 Assembly polls, are expected to join the SP now.
BJP MLA from Nanpara in Bahriach Madhuri Verma and Radha Krishna Sharma from Bilsi in Badaun have already joined the SP.