UP minister Swami Prasad Maurya quits BJP, may join Samajwadi Party

Lucknow, Jan 11: In a major setback for BJP, UP Labour, Employment and Coordination Minister Swami Prasad Maurya on Tuesday tendered his resignation as Minister, ahead of crucial polls.

""Due to the attitude of gross neglect towards Dalits, backwards, farmers, unemployed youth and small and medium-sized traders, I am resigning from the council of ministers of Yogi (Adityanath) of UP", wrote Swami Prasad Maurya in his resignation.

Swami Prasad Maurya's resignation came amid speculations of him joining the Samajwadi Party.

Maurya, the BJP MLA from Padrauna in eastern Uttar Pradesh, is a powerful OBC (Other Backward Class) leader and multiple-term MLA. He joined the BJP in 2016 after quitting Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Spread over seven phases, moving sequentially from the west to the east of the vast state, the 403-seat polls will have a major bearing on the 2024 parliamentary elections, when the BJP hopes to return to power in Delhi under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The BJP had registered a landslide victory in 2017 assembly polls winning 312 seats on its own, and 325 if the those won by the allies are also counted.

Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party was a distant second then at 49. Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party won 19 seats. Apna Dal (Sonelal) got nine, two more than the Congress tally. The SP has emerged as the major contender to power, and the Congress is under pressure to come up with better numbers, now that the campaign is under the direct charge of general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Uttar Pradesh will vote on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, March 3 and 7. The results will be declared on March 10 along with the four other poll-bound states of Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.