New Delhi: In a big jolt to the BJP and the Yogi Adityanath-led government just before the Uttar Pradesh elections, senior leader Swami Prasad Maurya quit as minister Tuesday. He joined the Samajwadi Party led by Akhilesh Yadav. Moments after Swami Prasad Maurya posted his resignation letter on Twitter, another BJP MLA, Roshan Lal Verma, announced his resignation.
Maurya was UP’s Minister of Labour, Employment and Coordination. “Despite a divergent ideology, I worked with dedication in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet. But because of the grave oppression of Dalits, OBCs, farmers, unemployed and small businessmen, I am resigning from the post of minister and also quitting the BJP,” Maurya said on Twitter.
Shortly after his resignation, Maurya met Yadav. The latter tweeted a photograph with Maurya, welcoming him and his supporters to the Samajwadi Party. “I warmly welcome Swami Prasad Maurya, a leader who fights for social justice and equality, and all his supporters. There will be a revolution in social justice. Change is coming in 2022,” Yadav tweeted in Hindi.
A veteran politician and five-term MLA, Maurya had quit the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2016. Then he had accused the BSP of running a ‘money for ticket’ syndicate. Maurya then formed his own organisation called Loktantrik Bahujan Manch and was appointed a Cabinet Minister in Yogi Adityanath’s government in 2017. He was elected from the Padrauna constituency in eastern Uttar Pradesh.