Swami Prasad Maurya did BSP a favour, says Mayawati

Minutes after Swami Prasad Maurya, the BSP’s OBC leader and Leader of the Opposition in the UP Assembly, quit the party on Wednesday, BSP supremo Mayawati hurriedly convened a press conference and said the former had done the BSP a favour by walking out. “In any case, we would have thrown him out of the party in two or three days. Swami Prasad Maurya was with Mulayam Singh Yadav in the Lok Dal and then the Janata Dal, and he always wanted to promote his son and daughter in politics. I accepted his request and gave them tickets, but both lost the elections. He again wanted tickets for them but I refused,” she said.

Ms Mayawati said Mr Maurya would be better placed in the Samajwadi Party because it believes in nepotism. She also dismissed Mr Maurya’s allegation that tickets were being auctioned in the BSP. “Let him say how much money he paid for the tickets given to him and his children. This is the easiest allegation that everyone levels at the BSP,” she said.

Earlier, while talking to reporters, Mr Maurya said tickets were being changed five to six times, depending on the highest bidder. He said the BSP had ceased to be a party for dalits and the ideology of Dr B.R. Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram had been sacrificed.

The BSP leadership was caught unawares by Mr Maurya’s announcement. Party leaders had no inkling of his decision to quit the party. Ms Mayawati had made changes in the responsibilities of some coordinators two days ago but did not know about Mr Maurya’s plans since he had been regularly attending all her meetings. After the press conference, Mr Maurya went to meet SP ministers Azam Khan and Shivpal Singh Yadav.

Mr Khan said any party would be fortunate to have a leader like Mr Maurya and the BSP was unfortunate to have lost him.

Speculation is rife that Mr Maurya will be joining the Samajwadi Party in the coming days and could be given a ministerial position in next week’s Cabinet expansion. The Samajwadi Party, sources said, will use him to counter BJP state president Keshav Maurya and keep the OBC votes on its side.