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  India   Jolt to BSP: Another senior quits

Jolt to BSP: Another senior quits

Published : Jul 1, 2016, 6:29 am IST
Updated : Jul 1, 2016, 6:29 am IST

Exactly eight days after its senior leader Swami Prasad Maurya quit the Bahujan Samaj Party, senior leader R.K.

Sushma Swaraj.jpg
 Sushma Swaraj.jpg

Exactly eight days after its senior leader Swami Prasad Maurya quit the Bahujan Samaj Party, senior leader R.K. Chaudhary also resigned from the BSP on Thursday, accusing Ms Mayawati of having turned the party into a “real estate company”.

Mr Chaudhary was the seniormost Pasi leader that the party had and also one of the last Kanshi Ram loyalists in the party. The Pasis are the second-largest dalit group in Uttar Pradesh and constitute about 16 per cent of the dalit population.

Mr Chaudhary, while talking to reporters on Thursday, said that Ms Mayawati’s lust for money had destroyed the ideology on which the BSP was based.

This is an allegation that almost every BSP leader — from Dr Sonelal Patel to Mr Swami Prasad Maurya — who has quit the party has levelled against the leadership.

Mr Chaudhary said, “Tickets are now being sold for money and the party has strayed from the mission that was started by Dr Ambedkar and then followed by Mr Kanshi Ram. Dedicated and loyal party workers are being pushed out by sycophants who surround Ms Mayawati.”

The leader said that there were several other leaders and party workers who were upset with the changing culture of the BSP and would walk out soon.

The exits of Mr Maurya and now Mr Chaudhary from the BSP are bound to make a severe dent in the OBC and dalit votes of the BSP. Both these leaders have been closely involved with the party’s organisational work and are looked upon as leaders of their respective communities. The exit of another leader Babu Singh Kushwaha before the Lok Sabha elections had also lent a blow to the party.

Meanwhile, on his future plans, Mr Chaudhary said that he had convened a meeting of his supporters on July 11 and would take the decision after consulting them.

Mr Chaudhary’s association with the late Kanshi Ram began in 1981 and he was one of the founding members of the BSP which was formed in 1984. He was also a minister in the first SP-BSP government formed in Uttar Pradesh in 1993.

Mr Chaudhary was expelled by Ms Mayawati in 2001 after which he formed the Bahujan Samaj Swabhiman Sangharsh Samiti.

(BS4) which was a prototype of Dalit Soshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti (DS4) and later, the Rashtriya Swabhiman Party. Mr Chaudhary was later brought back into the BSP in 2013 when Ms Mayawati felt that she was losing out on Pasi support. Party sources said that after his return to the BSP, Mr Chaudhary had been humiliated by Ms Mayawati on several occasions and it was this that drove him out of the party. He was also asked by the BSP president ‘not to be seen in Lucknow’. State BSP president Ram Achal Rajbhar also issued a statement terming Mr Chaudhary as a ‘saleable commodity’ and rubbished the allegations levelled by him against the party president. He said that this would not impact the BSP which will grow stronger after such incidents.

Location: India, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow