The meaning of the minister who stopped in Uttar Pradesh: 5 points

Lucknow:

In a major setback for the BJP weeks ahead of the state assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, a top minister has left the party along with three MLAs. Swami Prasad Maurya, a top minister of UP and influential leader of the backward caste, has joined the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi party.

1. Swami Prasad Maurya, UP’s minister of labour, employment and coordination, resigned from Yogi Adityanath’s cabinet today and posted his letter of resignation on the microblogging website Twitter. “Despite differing ideology, I have worked diligently in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet. But due to the severe oppression of Dalits, OBCs, farmers, the unemployed and small entrepreneurs, I am resigning,” he said.
2. Shortly after his resignation, Maurya met the leader of the Samajwadi party, Akhilesh Yadav. Yadav tweeted a photo with Maurya, welcoming him and his supporters to the Samajwadi party. “I would like to 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. In 2022 there will be change,” Yadav tweeted in Hindi.
3. Maurya, a veteran politician and a five-term MLA, had left the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2016, accusing the party of running a “money for a ticket” syndicate. Ms Mayawati had denied the allegations. Maurya subsequently founded his own organization called Loktantrik Bahujan Manch and was appointed a minister in the government of Yogi Adityanath in 2017.
4. Swami Prasad Maurya’s daughter Sanghmitra Maurya is a BJP MP from Badaun in Uttar Pradesh.
5. Mr Maurya is a powerful leader of the OBC (Other Backward Class) representing the Padrauna constituency in eastern Uttar Pradesh. In a warning to the BJP, he told reporters: “What impact my departure will have on the BJP will be clear after the 2022 assembly elections.”