Swami Prasad Maurya, 68, who quit the Cabinet on Tuesday to be headed to the Samajwadi Party (SP) is a prominent non-Yadav OBC face of Uttar Pradesh politics.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav was quick to post a photograph with Maurya on Twitter, welcoming the leader. It is however a big leap for someone like Maurya who has spent a career taking on the SP — for two decades as a member of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the last five years in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a Cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath-led government.
Once a close confidant of BSP chief Mayawati and a vocal face of the party, Maurya was made minister in every BSP government — in 1997, 2002 and 2007. He was also the Leader of Opposition every time the BSP was out of power. He was even made BSP national general secretary, effectively making him No. 2 to Mayawati in the party hierarchy.
Maurya lost his debut election in 1996 which he contested from Dalmau Assembly constituency of Rae Bareli district as a BSP candidate. Even in 2007, when Maurya lost the Assembly polls though the BSP came to power with a majority, Mayawati sent him to the Upper House of the state legislature and made him minister. Over the years, the five-time MLA has established himself as the face of “non-Yadav” OBCs such as the Mauryas, Kushwahas, Shakyas.
Maurya had even fielded his daughter Sanghmitra, who is currently the sitting BJP MP from Badaun, as a BSP candidate against SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
In 2016, while he was Leader of Opposition, Maurya left the BSP, alleging “auctioning” of party tickets. Mayawati however refuted the allegations, who, in turn, alleged that Maurya had quit because his son Utkrist and daughter Sanghmitra did not get tickets for the seats they had allegedly lobbied for.
Maurya later joined the BJP, just before the 2017 polls, claiming that he was impressed with the work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the “weaker sections” of the society.
Maurya won the 2017 elections as the BJP candidate from Padrauna Assembly seat in Kushinagar district; he had been an MLA twice in the past from this seat. He won the 2017 election with over 93,000 votes, defeating BSP’s Javed Iqbal. His son Utkrist, however, lost from Unchahar seat to SP’s Manoj Kumar Pandey.
Maurya is said to have a hold over a large section of “non-Yadav” voters, both in eastern and western UP. He has also claimed to have the support of many OBC leaders who moved with him to the BJP and who, he now claims, will leave with him. Among these ‘loyalists’ is Roshan Lal Verma, BJP MLA from Tilhar Assembly constituency of Shahjahanpur, who personally carried Maurya’s letter to Raj Bhavan on Tuesday.
