Soon after Swami Prasad Maurya submitted his resignation letter to Governor Anandiben Patel, he was welcomed into the Samajwadi Party by party president Akhilesh Yadav.
Senior OBC leader and cabinet minister in Uttar Pradesh, Swami Prasad Maurya on Tuesday resigned from his ministerial post, saying Dalits, OBCs, farmers and youth were being neglected by the Yogi Adityanath government, despite Performing their duties diligently.
Soon after Mr. Maurya handed over his resignation letter to Governor Anandiben Patel, he was welcomed into the Samajwadi Party by party president Akhilesh Yadav.
A five-time MLA and sitting MLA from Padrauna in Kushinagar in Purvanchal, he handled the Department of Labor, Employment and Coordination in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet.
Mr Maurya’s departure comes as a major loss to the BJP’s OBC gameplan in eastern and central UP ahead of the 2022 assembly elections as Mr Maurya, who spent most of his life in the BSP, is considered a popular face among the most backward castes. goes. In particular, he leads the Maurya and Kushwaha communities.
His daughter Sanghamitra Maurya is BJP’s Lok Sabha MP from Badaun, having defeated SP-BSP joint candidate Dharmendra Yadav in 2019.
Coming from the Kanshi Ram stock of Bahujan politics and known for his scathing rhetoric, Mr Maurya, in his brief resignation letter, said he worked diligently in the government despite “adverse circumstances” and an ideology different from the BJP.
His entry comes as a further boost for the SP, which has already combined important allies in eastern UP with parties backed by Maurya, Nonia Chauhan, Kurmi and Rajbhar castes as it is a numerically important and influential OBC. It seeks to create better acceptance among those whom the BJP has been aggressively attracting and grooming with welfare schemes, Hindutva and representation.
Mr Yadav met Mr Maurya soon after his resignation and said he was welcoming a leader who fights for “social justice and equality”.There will be a revolution of social justice, there will be change in Bais [There will be a revolution of social justice, there will be a change in 2022],” Mr Yadav tweeted.
Mr Maurya, who began his political career with the Yuva Lok Dal in Prayagraj, then Allahabad, in 1980, served as the Janata Dal’s state general secretary from 1991 to 1995, before being replaced by the BSP in 1996. was appointed General Secretary. He has been a minister in the governments led by BSP chief Mayawati. However, in 2016, Mr Maurya left the BSP after differences with Ms. Mayawati over the issue of ticket distribution and her style of functioning. He publicly accused Ms. Mayawati of auctioning tickets. He joined the BJP, which till then was in pole position among OBCs to take advantage of the anti-incumbency wave against the Akhilesh Yadav government.
He was among the BJP leaders who openly refused to name Mr Adityanath as the face of the 2022 campaign.