Cabinet colleague of former BJP minister Swami Prasad Maurya, senior BJP leader Sidharth Nath Singh told CNN-News18 that those who did not work and expected things to happen in the last minute, also understood whether they will get a ticket. “So, accordingly, they try to play the card and some of them have left because of that. They know that they won’t get a ticket,” he said, referring to Maurya’s resignation from the BJP on Tuesday.
In his resignation letter, Maurya has come down heavily on the Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh. As he quit the BJP, Maurya accused the party of being against the backward community. Singh said in all the five years that Maurya was a minister, he had never raised any concern about the state government overlooking interests of backward castes, Dalits or the youth.
Sources in the BJP told News18 that Maurya was angling for a ticket for his son. His daughter Sanghmitra Maurya is an MP from Badaun. Singh said, “What surprises me is that we sat together in the cabinet and many other group of ministers. All the while we were together, he always praised that the Yogi government, along with the Modi government, has done the maximum for Dalits, OBCs, maximum for the farmers. Be it from the numbers of Poradhgan Mantri Awas Yojana, Mukhya Mantri Awas Yojana, Ayushman card.”
Maurya, a five-term MLA, holds clout among 35 per cent non-Yadav OBCs in eastern Uttar Pradesh. His exit from the BJP has triggered a domino effect with the resignation of three other MLAs. Maurya had joined the BJP ahead of the 2017 elections.
Though SP chief Akhilesh Yadav posted a picture with Maurya, Swami has kept his window of negotiation open with the BJP as he said he will announce his future course of action on January 14.
The central BJP leadership has authorised Uttar Pradesh president Swatantra Dev Singh and organisation general secretary Sunil Bansal to reach out to disgruntled members who quit the BJP.
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