SP's Swami Prasad Maurya quits party, resigns as MLC

Lucknow: A week after tendering his resignation from the post of Samajwadi Party national general secretary, Swami Prasad Maurya on Tuesday resigned from the party's primary membership and the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.

Maurya resigned as the party's national general secretary on February 13, accusing the leadership of discriminating against him and not defending him over his controversial statements on the Ramcharitmanas and the Ayodhya temple consecration ceremony.

He will hold a meeting with his supporters on Thursday in New Delhi to decide his future course of action.

"I got an opportunity to work with you. But after our talks on February 12 and my resignation (as national general secretary) on February 13, no initiative of any talks with me was taken due to which I am resigning from the primary membership of the party," Maurya said in a letter to party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

He also shared the letter on his social media handles.

In a separate letter to the chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, Maurya said, "I was elected as a Samajwadi Party member in the legislative council. As I have resigned from the primary membership of the party, I am also resigning as MLC (member of legislative council) on the basis of morality," he said.

Maurya joined the Samajwadi Party from the BJP ahead of the 2022 assembly polls, contesting the elections unsuccessfully from Fazilnagar. His daughter Sanghmitra is the BJP's Badaun MP.

Maurya, considered a prominent leader of the backward classes in the state, has been a five-time MLA. He served as a minister in the Uttar Pradesh government, leader of the House and leader of opposition.

Having joined the BJP from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), he served as labour minister in the Yogi Adityanath-led government between 2017 and 2022.

Apparently peeved by some Samajwadi Party leaders terming his statements as "personal", Maurya had said in his letter resigning as national general secretary, "I was surprised when a senior most leader of the party, instead of remaining silent, tried to break the morale of the workers by saying my statements are personal. I could not understand that I am a national general secretary whose statement becomes a personal statement. There are some national general secretaries and leaders whose every statement becomes a party statement." "How the statements of those on the same post become party statements and mine become personal is beyond understanding," he had further said.

He had also claimed that people from tribal communities, Dalits and backward classes got inclined towards the Samajwadi Party due to his efforts.

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", he had said.