Resignations plague big parties in UP

With political bickering between BJP and BSP touching a crescendo, the season of allegations and resignations has also set in.

BJP’s Deep Chand Ram, a senior member of the party SC Morcha, has sent his resignation because he claimed he was “feeling suffocated” because of recent incidents related to the atrocities on dalits in Una in Gujarat and the Daya Shankar Singh controversy.

In a letter sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Deep Chand Ram has said that issues related to dalits were not being properly handled by the party leadership and hence he did not wish to remain in the BJP.

“A civil war-like situation is developing in the country and the Prime Minister should intervene before it is too late. The party leaders have nothing to say on these issues and I am finding it difficult to face my own people,” he told this correspondent.

BJP’s SC Morcha state president Gautam Chaudh-ary said Deep Chand had joined BJP for “personal gains” and left the party because he had sensed that he would not be given a ticket for the 2017 Assembly polls. Deep Chand is expected to join the BSP now.

The BSP, on the other hand, is facing a fresh round of allegations with Mohd Sabir Khan, the party’s in-charge of the Amethi Lok Sabha segment, quitting the party and alleging that Ms Mayawati even charges a sum of `2 lakh from those who wish to meet her and pay their respects.

Mr Khan told local reporters in Amethi he had been working for BSP since 1992 and never imagined that he would be asked to pay this amount to meet his own party leaders. “I asked for an appointment with Ms Mayawati because I wanted to meet her and apprise her of the political situation in the constituency. I was asked to deposit a sum of `2 lakh for this,” he said.

Charges were levelled by senior party leader Swami Prasad Maurya and R.K. Chaudhary who resigned in recent weeks, that Ms Mayawati was taking money to give tickets.