Swami Prasad Maurya tenders resignation, Akhilesh Yadav yet to decide

Ballia (UP): A day after Swami Prasad Maurya resigned as national general secretary of Samajwadi Party, party's national secretary Ram Govind Chaudhary on Wednesday wrote a letter to SP president Akhilesh Yadav requesting him not to accept the resignation as he was countering "poison" being spread by RSS and BJP.

Maurya had on Tuesday resigned as the party's national general secretary accusing the leadership of discriminating against him and not defending him over his remarks.

In his letter to Yadav, Chaudhary said, "Under your successful leadership, every worker and leader of Samajwadi Party is struggling to reduce the effect of this poison of communalism and hypocrisy. Party's national general secretary Shri Swami Prasad Maurya is also strongly opposing this poison of BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh due to which he is on the target of BJP and Sangh." He said Maurya comes from a backward community and because of his "fighting instinct" he has a special place in this society.

"It is in the interest of the Samajwadi Party that he continues as an office bearer. Therefore, I insist that you do not accept his resignation," Chaudhary, who is a former leader of opposition, said in his letter to Yadav.

Maurya had made controversial statements on the Ramcharitmanas and the Ayodhya temple consecration ceremony.

A member of the state legislative council from the SP, Maurya had joined the Samajwadi Party from the BJP before the 2022 polls and unsuccessfully contested the assembly polls from Fazilnagar. His daughter Sanghmitra is BJP MP from Budaun.

In his resignation letter addressed to party president Akhilesh Yadav, Maurya had said, "I continued trying to increase the support base of the party in my own way. I tried to bring back the self-respect of the tribal people, Dalits and backward classes, who had knowingly or unknowingly fallen into the BJP's web and joined the party, by awakening and cautioning them.

"When I tried, some small and big leaders of the party tried to discourage me by saying 'this is Maurya ji's personal statement', but I did not take it otherwise," he said.

He said, "Even when I attacked hypocrisy, the same people were again seen saying similar things. I did not regret this either, because in accordance with the Constitution, I am raising people with scientific thinking and bringing people to SP." He had said due to his personal efforts, the party's support base increased and added that if there is discrimination even against someone holding the post of national general secretary, "then I think there is no justification for continuing in such a 'bhed-bhavpurn aur mahatvheen' (discriminatory and unimportant) post".

"I will continue to work to strengthen the party without any post," Maurya had said, sharing his resignation letter on social media.

Maurya, who is considered a prominent leader of the backward classes in the state, has also been a member of the Legislative Assembly five times, a minister in the Uttar Pradesh government, leader of the House and leader of the opposition (2012-17) when he was in BSP.

He was the labour minister in the Yogi Adityanath government between 2017 and 2022 and quit the BJP ahead of the last assembly election.