2 former UP ministers join Samajwadi Party; Swami Prasad Maurya vows to 'finish' BJP

Maurya said that all his efforts would be to free Uttar Pradesh from the misrule of the BJP

Two former Uttar Pradesh ministers, including key OBC leader Swami Prasad Maurya and Dharam Singh Saini, and six other BJP MLAs, who had resigned from the saffron party in the past few days, on Friday, formally joined the Samajwadi Party (SP).

Maurya, whose exit from the ministry and the BJP had triggered an exodus from the saffron party, vowed to 'finish' the BJP in the forthcoming assembly polls even as he contested chief minister Yogi Adityanath's assertion that the UP polls was a fight ''80 per cent vs 20 per cent'' (read Hindus vs Muslims) and said that the fight in fact between ''85 per cent and 15 per cent'' (read OBC, Dalits, Muslims vs others).

Maurya, who was considered to be an influential OBC leader, especially in the eastern UP region, launched a scathing attack on Adityanath and accused him of ''gobbling up'' the due of the OBCs and Dalits by not giving them reservation in the recruitment of teachers. ''Adityanath should explain if the SC people are not Hindus'', he said.

Also Read -- It could be 'touch and go' for the BJP in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh

''In the eyes of Adityanath, only the upper caste people are Hindus....if that's what you think then you (Yogi) should pack your bags and you are certain to lose the polls,'' he said.

Maurya also claimed that the BJP had won the 2017 assembly polls in UP on the promise of making him or the deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya the CM of the state if it came to power. ''BJP ditched bot me and Keshav Maurya and instead parachuted someone from Gorakhpur,'' he added.

He also claimed that many more BJP leaders, including MLAs, would leave the party in the next few days.

Also Read -- OBC plank jolted, BJP may fall back on hardline Hindutva

Speaking on the occasion, SP president Akhilesh Yadav said that the BJP was certain to be wiped out in the polls. ''Even the people from Delhi (read Narendra Modi) will not be able to help Baba (Adityanath),'' he said.

Those who joined the SP besides Maurya and Saini, included Roshan Lal Maurya, Bhagwati Sagar, Mukesh Verma, Brijesh Prajapati, Chaudhary Amar Singh and Vinay Shakya (all MLAs).

As many as three BJP ministers and eight MLAs, most of them hailing from the OBC community, have so far left the saffron party in the past few days triggering panic in the party and altering the electoral scene in the politically crucial state.

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