'Snake, cobra didn't let mongoose win': Swami Prasad Maurya on poll defeat

New Delhi, Mar 12: Swami Prasad Maurya, who quit the BJP to join SP ahead of UP elections, said that cobra and snake joined hands to ensure the defeat of mongoose, an apparent reference to BJP and BSP coming together to beat him at Fazilnagar seat.

"nag aur sanp ne milkar newale ko jitne nahi diya (cobra and snake joined hands to ensure that mongoose didn't win)", he said, claiming that mongoose always emerges victorious in the battles.

"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," ANI quotes Maurya as saying.

The former minister quit BSP just before the 2017 elections and joined the BJP. He won the elections and became the minister in Yogi Adityanath's government.

"The issues because of which I had left the BJP are still relevant today. 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 said.

In the recently-concluded elections, the BJP retained power in Uttar Pradesh by winning 255 out of 403 constituencies. It garnered a 41.29 per cent vote share in the state. The saffron party had won 312 seats in 2017.

Whereas Samajwadi Party, which won 47 seats in the last assembly elections, emerged victorious in 111 seats with a vote share of 32.06 votes.