‘Snake, Cobra Didn't Let Mongoose Win’: Swami Prasad Maurya Targets BJP, BSP Post Poll Defeat

“Mongoose is always superior to a snake. It is a different matter that both the snake and the cobra together did not let the mongoose win,” he said, ANI reported.

Former Uttar Pradesh minister Swami Prasad Maurya (File Pic)

New Delhi: Extremely upset with his defeat from the Fazilnagar seat in the assembly polls, former Uttar Pradesh minister Swami Prasad Maurya on Saturday claimed “nag aur sanp ne milkar newale ko jitne nahi diya” (cobra and snake joined hands to ensure that mongoose didn’t win).

Maurya’s remarks were aimed at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

“Mongoose is always superior to a snake. It is a different matter that both the snake and the cobra together did not let the mongoose win,” he said, ANI reported.

Asserting that the mongoose always wins in fights with the snake, Maurya sought to suggest that he was the mongoose and his rivals were snakes in the recently held assembly polls.

Stating the issues because of which he had left the BJP are still relevant, Maurya said: “I wasn't not able to take those issues to the people. I am happy that the support base of the Samajwadi Party has expanded. The SP has emerged as a big force in the state.”

“Our campaign will continue to make the SP a bigger force,” he added.

Maurya, a former BJP leader, had switched allegiance on the poll eve to join former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party.

He was earlier a BJP MLA and a minister in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh Cabinet.

Maurya, who was earlier in 2016 the national general secretary of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), had joined the BJP in the run-up to the 2017 state assembly elections.

Maurya’s outburst comes as the BJP retained power in Uttar Pradesh by winning 255 seats in the 403-member assembly.

The Samajwadi Party came a distant second, winning 111 seats.

The BSP and the Congress were reduced to a single digit, winning one seat and two seats respectively.