Adding to the string of defections from the BJP, another MLA Mukesh Verma, a backward caste leader, quit the party on Thursday. Verma posted his resignation on Twitter and surfaced at the home of Swami Prasad Maurya, whose resignation from the state Cabinet kicked off the mass exodus from the party.
“Swami Prasad Maurya is our leader. We will support whatever decision he takes. Many other leaders will join us in the coming days,” said Verma, an MLA from Firozabad in western Uttar Pradesh.
Like all other MLAs and the two ministers – Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Singh Chauhan – who quit the party in the last two days, Verma also blamed the party for neglecting backward castes in Uttar Pradesh. “The BJP government in the past five years did not pay any attention to Dalits, backward castes and minorities and disrespected people’s representatives,” he wrote.
After Maurya quit the party on Tuesday and is now set to join the Samajwadi Party, another OBC leader Dara Singh Chauhan resigned Wednesday from the Yogi Adityanath cabinet and appeared to be headed towards the SP. Though Dara Singh Chauhan has not made it clear that he is joining the Samajwadi Party, the SP twitted a welcome message.
On Wednesday, three BJP MLAs announced their resignation from the party, seemingly in Maurya’s support. Yet another BJP MLA, Avtar Singh Bhadana, quit the party and is joining the Rashtriya Lok Dal, an SP ally.
The recent developments are set to strengthen the SP’s influence among the non-Yadav OBCs in the state, less than a month before the crucial elections that will also have an impact on the 2024 parliamentary polls.
On Tuesday, three other BJP MLAs — Tindwari’s Brajesh Prajapati, Tilhar’s Roshan Lal Varma and Bilhaur’s Bhagwati Sagar — had also announced that they were leaving the party. And rumours swirled about some others. On Wednesday, BJP MLA from Meerapur, Avtar Singh Bhadana, joined the Jayant Chaudhary-led Rashtriya Lok Dal.
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