Senior BSP leader and Leader of Opposition in UP Assembly Swami Prasad Maurya on Wednesday decided to quit the party and accused party supremo Mayawati of selling election tickets.
He left BSP amid speculation that he might join the ruling Samajwadi Party and could be made a minister when Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav expands his Council of Ministers on June 27.
"I feel suffocated and cannot continue in the party any more," he said at a hurriedly-convened press conference.
"Tickets are being openly auctioned by Mayawati on a large scale. She is not making the right choice of candidates. Tickets are not only on sale in the party, they are being auctioned," he added.
Mayawati, however, dismissed the allegations levelled at her. She slammed Maurya by saying that he had done a great favour by resigning and dared him to prove his charge that tickets were being "auctioned" by her.
Mayawati said he quit the party as he was unhappy after she refused to accept his demand for giving tickets not only to him but also to his son and daughter.
"I would have expelled him in a few days. He has done a great favour to the party by leaving it himself," she added.
Mayawati dared Maurya to disclose as to how much money he had paid her for his party ticket to contest the last Assembly polls.
Slamming Maurya as a "habitual party-hopper", Mayawati said she had not only accepted him in her party fold but also had given him the coveted post of LoP in the state Assembly.
(With inputs from PTI)
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