Big blow to Mayawati ahead of Assembly polls, senior leader Swami Prasad Maurya quits BSP

Lucknow: In what will come as a big blow to the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ahead of the Assembly polls in the state in 2017, legislative party leader Swami Prasad Maurya today announced his resignation from the party alleging an unfair ticket distribution system adopted by party chief Mayawati for the upcoming polls.

Prasad, also the Leader of Opposition in the UP Assembly, charged Mayawati of selling party tickets for money.

He said that Mayawati “is busy making money at the cost of party's ideology”.

“Mayawati is working against the principles of Dr BR Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram. She is selling the party tickets… there is a corruption in the ticket distribution system,” the BSP’s general secretary said here.

"In 2017, it is a do or die situation for the party. Instead of selecting good candidates, who are loyal to the policies of the party, Mayawati is auctioning tickets to the highest bidder. Mayawatiji had been auctioning tickets ever since she took over as the supreme leader from party founder Kanshi ram," he said.

“She is not Dalit ki beti but 'Daulat ki beti," he added.

Maurya, however, thanked Mayawati for giving him plum posts in the party and said he had discussed issues that were worrying him with her but found that she was not interested in course correction.

A national vice-president of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Maurya's resignation is widely seen as a major blow to the Dalit party which is aiming to return to power in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

Meanwhile, there are reports that Maurya was unhappy with Mayawati for not giving ticket to his son and daughter to contest the polls. Maurya had joined the party in 1996.

Incidentally, the development comes on a day that reports said that Mayawati had revamped the organisational setup of the party in view of the polls. According to an IANS report quoting unnamed party sources, the four-time chief minister has been actively overhauling her party machinery in the past few months.

Reacting to development, Mayawati said that the party “is happy with the resignation of senior leader Maurya”.

“Swami Prasad Maurya has done great favour to BSP by quitting the party,” the BSP chief said.

Targeting Maurya for allegedly asking for tickets for his children, Mayawati said she would have thrown him out of the party anyway.

"I am not going to encourage a dynasty-kind of culture in the BSP," she said.

Meanwhile, sources said that Maurya will soon join the ruling Samajwadi Party.