Swami Prasad Maurya meets Akhilesh Yadav amid Ramcharitmanas row

Maurya kicked up a little storm in Uttar Pradesh politics on January 22, when he referred to a couplet in Shri Ramcharitmanas.

Lucknow, Jan 28: Amid furore over his remark on Ramcharitmanas, Samajwadi Party MLC Swami Prasad Maurya met party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday.

Reportedly, Yadav extended support with Maurya and made a fierce attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saying "BJP people consider Dalits as Shudra...They consider us backwards and Dalits as Shudras (untouchable)."

"The BJP is not custodian of Hindu religion. It sent their goons so that I could not come to this event, but we are Samajwadi people and we are not scared of these goons," he said.

"People in BJP think backwards are 'shudras.' BJP has a problem with backwards going to religious programmes," he said.

Commenting on his meeting with Swami Prasad Maurya, he said, "I have told Swami Prasad Maurya to take ahead his campaign for caste based survey."

Maurya kicked up a little storm in Uttar Pradesh politics on January 22, when he referred to a couplet in Shri Ramcharitmanas and called it derogatory towards women and backward people, demanding a ban on it.

The statement quickly snowballed into a controversy with several priest bodies and Hindu organisations coming out to condemn it. A case has also been registered against Maurya in this matter.

Maurya has refused to retract his remarks saying he had spoken on a particular verse in Hindu epic poem and not about Lord Ram or any religion.

Several SP MLAs, including the party's chief whip in the assembly, MLA Manoj Pandey, also called Maurya's statement "wrong" and said the party will confer with its president on how to come out of the controversy.

Shivpal Yadav, Akhilesh's uncle, has also termed it a personal opinion of Maurya.

In the immediate wake of the controversy, several BJP leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, hit out at Akhilesh Yadav. "If Akhilesh Yadav does not support Swami Prasad Maurya's remarks on the Ramcharitmanas, then he should expel him from the party," he said Tuesday.

Yadav was greeted with black flags in Lucknow on Saturday during his participation at a religious event after his meeting with Swami Prasad Maurya.