Swami Prasad Maurya’s nephew, others join SP

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister and BJP leader Swami Prasad Maurya’s nephew Pramod Kumar Maurya joined the Samajwadi Party along with a host of Maurya community leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) at a press conference convened by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav here on Saturday.

Swami Prasad Maurya was a trusted aide of BSP chief Mayawati but left her party in 2016 to join the BJP.

He was inducted into the Yogi Adityanath cabinet as minister for labour, employment and coordination after the BJP swept the 2017 UP assembly polls.

Pramod Kumar Maurya said “Swami Prasad Maurya has been our leader, but when he was ignored in the BSP, he joined BJP. Despite being the leader of the opposition, he was ignored in the BSP, so he left the BJP and joined the BSP. Now, despite being a cabinet minister in the BJP government, if he continues to be ignored in the BJP, then he too might join the SP.”

Pramod Kumar Maurya said, “Many of us have realised that neither the BSP nor the BJP is for us, the SP is where we should be.”

He said over 100 community leaders from six districts joined the SP on Saturday and many more from the remaining districts of UP will do so in the days to come.

Akhilesh said: “We have to strengthen and expand the party. This is one way. We will give rajnaitik samman (political position or tickets) to those who deserve it.”