Uttar Pradesh’s prominent OBC leader, and now Ex-minister, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) man Swami Prasad Maurya was reportedly asked to appear before the court on December 12, however he did not show up.

Maurya has not yet officially joined the Samajwadi party, though he has met SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav who told mediapersons, “UP is tired of hatred politics, politics of insult and exploitation; UP will see change.” Swami Prasad Maurya had told NDTV that his resignation “caused an earthquake in the BJP” adding that he “only quit as a minister. I will quit the BJP soon. For now, I am not joining the Samajwadi Party.” 

Swami Prasad Maurya resigned from the Yogi-government on January 11, days after the Election Commission announced Assembly elections for the State. He quit along with Roshan Lal Verma, Brijesh Prajapati, Bhagwati Sagar and Vinay Shakya. Maurya declared he had “rejected the BJP… there is no question of going back,” and had reportedly even met Union Home Minister Amit Shah two months ago, about “Adityanath’s style of working.” While it is yet to be seen if the OBC leader joins Akhilesh Yadav and brings the non-Yadav OBC vote to SP, the arrest warrant in a 2014 case has surely added fuel to the issue. 

Polls will be held in seven phases for the mammoth 403-seat UP Assembly from February 10 to March 7. According to news reports, SP Maurya now faces arrest over alleged hate speech and the warrant for his arrest has been put out in Sultanpur just a day after his resignation. He has now reportedly been asked to appear before the court on January 24 in a case of inciting religious hate. The case dates to when he was in Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and he had reportedly said, “Goddess Gauri or Lord Ganesha should not be worshiped during weddings. It is a conspiracy by upper caste-dominated system to mislead and enslave Dalits and backward castes.” 

An earlier warrant for his arrest was put on hold by the Allahabad High Court in 2016 stated news reports, adding that there have been many hearings in the case, the last was on January 6, when a Sultanpur court had asked him to appear on December 12. When he did not, the court renewed his warrant.

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The post Arrest warrant in 2014 case against SP Maurya, a day after he quit team Adityanath appeared first on SabrangIndia.

With weeks to go for the UP Assembly elections, MLA Swami Prasad Maurya resigned from the Yogi-government on January 11, 2022 due to the “grossly neglectful attitude towards Dalits, farmers, the unemployed youth and small, small and medium businessmen.”

In a letter, the renowned minority leader said, “I diligently worked as the Labour, Employment and Coordination Minister in the Yogi-Adityanath Cabinet, despite differing ideologies. But because of the grossly neglectful attitude of the government towards Dalits, OBCs, farmers, unemployed and small businessmen, I am resigning.”

Three other MLAs, Roshan Lal Verma, Brijesh Prajapati and Bhagwati Sagar also submitted their resignations. Soon after this news, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav posted a Tweet welcoming Maurya to the SP, saying, “Warm welcome and greetings to the popular leader Swami Prasad Maurya, who fought for social justice and equality and all other leaders, workers and supporters who came with him in SP!”

सामाजिक न्याय और समता-समानता की लड़ाई लड़ने वाले लोकप्रिय नेता श्री स्वामी प्रसाद मौर्या जी एवं उनके साथ आने वाले अन्य सभी नेताओं, कार्यकर्ताओं और समर्थकों का सपा में ससम्मान हार्दिक स्वागत एवं अभिनंदन!

सामाजिक न्याय का इंक़लाब होगा ~ बाइस में बदलाव होगा#बाइसमेंबाइसिकल pic.twitter.com/BPvSK3GEDQ

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) January 11, 2022

Swami Prasad Maurya has been an MLA for five terms. Prior to joining the BJP in 2016, he was a part of the Bahujan Samajwadi Party and was important to the BJP to draw in minority votes.  

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya tweeted in Hindi, “Respected Swami Prasad Maurya has resigned for what reasons, I do not know, I appeal to him to sit and talk, hasty decisions often prove to be wrong.”

आदरणीय स्वामी प्रसाद मौर्य जी ने किन कारणों से इस्तीफा दिया है मैं नहीं जानता हूँ उनसे अपील है कि बैठकर बात करें जल्दबाजी में लिये हुये फैसले अक्सर गलत साबित होते हैं

— Keshav Prasad Maurya (@kpmaurya1) January 11, 2022

According to NDTV, Maurya’s resignation is likely to spark many more such moves from other MLAs. Last year, another OBC leader Om Prakash Rajbhar joined the Samajwadi Party. With many minority, youth and daily wage workers voicing persisting grievances, all eyes are trained on the UP state elections.

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The post BJP MLA Swami Prasad Maurya quits Yogi regime appeared first on SabrangIndia.