Rajya Sabha Elections 2024: After Swami Prasad Maurya, Samajwadi Party (SP) ally Apna Dal (Kameravadi) leader Pallavi Patel seems to be adding to Akhilesh Yadav's troubles ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections, to be held on February 27.
According to reports, Pallavi Patel is not happy with Samajwadi Party's Rajya Sabha election candidates and may not support them during the voting.
The Samajwadi Party nominated three leaders including Jaya Bachchan, Ramjilal Suman and Alok Ranjan for Rajya Sabha.
Pallavi Patel is reportedly not happy with Jaya Bachchan and Alok Ranjan's nomination.
Swami Prasad Maurya resigns as SP's national general secretary
On Tuesday, Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya resigned as the party's national general secretary accusing the leadership of discriminating against him and not defending him over his remarks.
Maurya had made controversial statements on the Ramcharitmanas and the Ayodhya temple consecration ceremony.
Maurya questioned Ram Mandir's consecration ceremony
Last week, he stirred up a controversy by raising questions on the consecration ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Speaking on the governor's address in the Legislative Assembly, Maurya had raised questions on Ram Lalla's 'Pran Pratishtha' (consecration) ceremony and said when Lord Ram has been worshipped in Ayodhya for thousands of years, what was the need to spend crores of rupees on the consecration ceremony on January 22.
A member of the state legislative council from the SP, Maurya had joined the Samajwadi Party from the BJP before the 2022 polls and unsuccessfully contested the assembly polls from Fazilnagar. His daughter Sanghmitra is BJP MP from Budaun.
Reacting to his statement, SP chief whip in the assembly Manoj Kumar Pandey condemned Maurya in very harsh words.
"I do not want to give any statement on what he (Maurya) has said. A person who does not have mental balance keeps making such statements. The party has repeatedly asked him not to do so, but when a deranged man does not want to listen to instructions, no one can do anything," he said.
SP national general secretary Shivpal Singh Yadav had said, "There should be no propaganda on religion, it should be practised," but did not elaborate.
In his resignation letter addressed to party president Akhilesh Yadav, Maurya said, "I continued trying to increase the support base of the party in my own way. I tried to bring back the self-respect of the tribal people, Dalits and backward classes, who had knowingly or unknowingly fallen into the BJP's web and joined the party, by awakening and cautioning them.
"When I tried, some small and big leaders of the party tried to discourage me by saying 'this is Maurya ji's personal statement', but I did not take it otherwise," he said.
He said, "Even when I attacked hypocrisy, the same people were again seen saying similar things. I did not regret this either, because in accordance with the Constitution, I am raising people with scientific thinking and bringing people to SP."
"I received about two dozen threats of shooting, murder, beheading with a sword, cutting tongue, cutting off nose-ears, cutting off hands, etc. 'Supari' (contract) of different amounts like Rs 51 crore, Rs 51 lakh, Rs 21 lakh, Rs 11 lakh and Rs 10 lakh etc were announced against me. Many times there were deadly attacks but every time I narrowly escaped. Many FIRs were lodged against me by those in power, but I continued with my campaign without worrying about my safety," he said.
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