Former BJP Minister Swami Prasad Maurya Officially Joins Hands With Samajwadi Party

Maurya had resigned from the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday citing reasons that the government did not address the issues of lower castes and backward classes

Swami Prasad Maurya | File Image

New Delhi: Former Cabinet Minister in the Yogi Government and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Swami Prasad Maurya officially joined hands with the Samajwadi Party today. He was inducted into the party in the presence of party supremo Akhilesh Yadav in a virtual rally.

The Covid-19 guidelines given by the Election Commission seem to have gone for a toss as many people thronged the 'virtual rally' at the ceremony for inducting Maurya and his supporters in the Samajwadi Party. 

Maurya had resigned from the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday citing reasons that the government did not address the issues of lower castes and backward classes. "Due to the attitude of gross neglect towards Dalits, backwards, farmers, unemployed youth and small and medium-sized traders, I am resigning from the council of ministers of Yogi (Adityanath) of UP," he had tweeted.

Along with Maurya, three other MLAs —Tilhar MLA Roshan Lal Verma, Bilhaur MLA Bhagwati Prasad Sagar and Tindwari MLA Brajesh Prajapati  — also submitted their resignation.

On the same day, minutes after the resignation, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had tweeted a photo of him with Maurya welcoming him to his 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," Akhilesh had tweeted.

A politician with strong OBC outreach, Swami Prasad Maurya was the Labour Minister in the current Uttar Pradesh Government. He had won the Padrauna seat in the Kushinagar district in 2017 on BJP’s ticket. Before switching to SP from BJP, Maruya was one of  the senior most leaders in the Bahujan Samaj Party which he quit in 2016 and joined the BJP. His daughter Sanghmitra Maurya is a BJP MP from Badaun.  

On Wednesday, clearing the air, Maurya announced that he would join the Samajwadi Party on January 14. Three other MLAs who resigned with Maurya also joined the party.