BJP jolted ahead of Uttar Pradesh polls as key OBC minister, four MLAs quit party, join SP

BJP suffered a huge jolt ahead of the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh when senior minister and influential OBC leader Swami Prasad Maurya and four other MLAs on Tuesday resigned from the Yogi Adityanath ministry and the saffron party and joined the Samajwadi Party (SP).

Besides Maurya, the others, who left the party, included Roshan Lal Verma, Bhagwati Sagar, Brijesh Prajapati and Vinay Shakya, all sitting MLAs. All of them joined the SP.

According to sources close to Maurya, a few more BJP legislators and at least two senior OBC ministers in the UP cabinet could resign from the party and follow Maurya.

Maurya, who held the labour portfolio, in his resignation letter to the governor, said that he was resigning in protest against "apathetic attitude of the state government toward farmers, youths, dalits, backwards and small and medium traders",

He said that he remained in the ministry despite having a 'divergent ideology' but he could not turn a blind eye to the sufferings of the dalits, OBCs, youths and small and medium traders.

Welcoming Maurya into his party, SP president Akhilesh Yadav said that Maurya was a popular leader, who always fought for social justice and equality. "Samajik nyaya ka inqulab hoga, 2022 mein badlav hoga" (social justice will triumph, 2022 will witness change), he said.

Maurya, who was considered to be an influential OBC leader from the Purvanchal region of UP, was a multiple term MLA. His daughter Sanghamitra Maurya is currently a BJP MP from Badayun.

Maurya's departure was a huge setback to the saffron party ahead of the polls and could severely dent its efforts to repeat its 2017 assembly polls performance when the party had won 115 of the 156 seats in the region.

Sources said that Maurya had earlier also expressed his resentment against Adityanath's style of functioning and conveyed the same to the senior BJP leaders, including union home minister Amit Shah, but it was ignored. Maurya claimed that at least ten to twelve BJP MLAs would leave the party and join the SP.

On the other hand it would certainly augment Akhilesh's attempts to bring important 'non-Yadav' OBC leaders to his fold. Earlier the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar, who wields considerable influence over the 'Rajbhar' (an OBC) community in the eastern region of the state, had joined hands with Akhilesh after quitting the BJP alliance.

"It is a setback. Maurya is an influential OBC leader. His departure can hurt our electoral prospects on several assembly seats in the eastern UP region," admitted a senior state BJP leader here.

Check out latest videos from DH: