Body blow for BSP as senior OBC leader quits

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) suffered a body blow on Wednesday when its most senior OBC leader Swami Prasad Maurya, who is also Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, quit the party accusing BSP president Mayawati of “auctioning” tickets for elections and betraying the ideology of dalit ideologues.

He said Ms Mayawati was no longer “dalit ki beti (daughter of the dalits)” but had become “daulat ki beti (daughter of wealth)”. He said her passion for money was responsible for the BSP’s defeat in the 2012 Assembly polls and 2014 Lok Sabha polls because workers had been ignored.

Mr Maurya’s exit from the BSP is one of the biggest jolts to the party in recent years. After the exit of leaders like Babu Singh Kushwaha and Jugal Kishore, the party had relied on Mr Maurya to keep its flock together. Sources said some more BSP MLAs were expected to follow Mr Maurya out of the party in the coming weeks.

BSP supremo Mayawati, meanwhile, hurriedly convened a press conference and said Mr Maurya had done the BSP a favour by walking out.