Swamy Prasad Maurya: BJP’s Backward Caste Leader Leaves Party

Swamy Prasad Maurya’s resignation from the Uttar Pradesh cabinet has brought the Yogi Adityanath government on the backfoot bellying all hopes of crafting and creating a constituency of the most backward castes and communities standing solidly behind Bhartiya Janta Party.

Maurya who comes from non-Yadav Other Backward Caste (OBC) community is influential in the Eastern UP beltf rom where he has been an MLA for five terms and a Labour Minister in the state government before resigning earlier this month. Switching from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and now Samajwadi Party (SP) advocating equality and dignity for people of oppressed and marginalized sections in his capacity and conduct as their representative and legislator pressing for reforms ensuring their welfare and wellbeing.

Doubting the intentions of the BJP government for not living upto the promise of a caste census clarifying the causes of their extreme backwardness alienating and isolating them from the mainstream in terms of access to resources and opportunities marking them worthy as citizens and human beings. Shouldn’t the leadership of conservative right-wing BJP plug the gaps and loopholes with a Hindutva project presenting them as mere footsoldiers preserving and safeguarding the oligarchy and order of Hindu caste system privileging those at the top by secluding the bottom ones. Had it not been for leaders like Kanshiram and Mulayam Singh Yadav these sections would have been at the mercy of leaders who could have suppressed and subjugated them commanding their loyalty and obedience something sending shivers down the spine of the BJP.

Though, Akhilesh Yadav is standing to the charge but only time will tell if it would be any effective as Yogi Adityanath fiercely wants to contest his post-poll replacements as the Chief Minister with his unsatisfactory track record as a leader and Chief Minister of the country’s most populous state. At the moment Adityanath is bargaining a better deal with Akhilesh Yadav acting as an albatross around his neck with an electoral politics which doesn’t seem to be nearing its completion from eighty percent to twenty, abbajaan etc there still a lot more to be chased.