As national general secretary of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and its leading non-Yadav OBC face, Swami Prasad Maurya, 69, has a vital role to play in fulfilling the party’s slogan for the 2024 Lok Sabha poll: ‘80 harao, BJP hatao’. To defeat the ruling party in all 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and dislodge it from power at the Centre, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had planned to form a social alliance of three groups classified as PDA: pichde (backward classes), Dalits, and alpsankhyak (minorities). That strategy suffered a blow when its former ally Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar and former SP MLA Dara Singh Chauhan, prominent leaders representing the backward classes, rejoined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. Mr. Maurya spoke about the changing political equations in the State, the SP’s strategy for the 2024 election, and drawing the ire of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Excerpts:
Why are leaders who had allied with the SP for the 2022 Assembly poll joining the NDA? Are the rights of the backward classes and Dalits safer under it?
Both Mr. Rajbhar and Mr. Chauhan had stepped down as Ministers in the BJP government. You should ask them what has changed for them to have rejoined the NDA. Atrocities against marginalised communities are continuing under the BJP’s rule. The party is implementing steps to deny reservation guaranteed by the Constitution to the OBCs and Dalits. Mr. Rajbhar used to earlier target the BJP over such issues. They have joined the NDA to serve their own interests. It has nothing to do with protecting the rights of the marginalised. In the Lok Sabha poll, these groups will not only defeat the BJP but also those who betray them.
Is there any truth to the BJP’s claim that several SP leaders are in touch with it and will soon be joining the NDA?
Whoever wants to join the BJP’s sinking ship is free to do so. Such leaders will bite the dust along with the BJP in the Lok Sabha poll.
What will be the seat-sharing formula for the constituents of the INDIA coalition in U.P.?
The BJP is scared of the name of INDIA. Like in other States, seat distribution in U.P. will be based on the ‘one seat, one candidate’ formula. The Opposition parties will sit together and decide on the seats to contest with the aim of defeating the autocratic and anti-reservation BJP.
The Uttarakhand CM has said your comment amid the Gyanvapi row that Badrinath Temple was earlier a Buddhist monastery shows the “anti-national and anti-religious” thinking of the Congress and its allies. How do you respond to this?
Occupying the CM’s chair does not make one a scholar. If he had any understanding of historical and archaeological evidence, he would not have made such a comment. Mr. Dhami is speaking not as a CM but as a leader of the BJP, which is known for spreading lies and rumours. Till the 8th century, Badrinath was a Buddhist monastery. Adi Shankaracharya then developed it as a Hindu religious site. Historians have clearly stated that Badrinath, Kedarnath, and several famous Hindu religious places were earlier Buddhist temples. Even Kashi and Mathura temples were Buddhist shrines. Whenever elections approach, the BJP rakes up religious issues that create division in society between Hindus and Muslims.
