Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Swami Prasad Maurya on February 13 resigned from the post of the party’s national general secretary, alleging attempts made by certain leaders of the party to “weaken” his initiative to unite the Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, and Minorities. Mr. Maurya added that he would continue to work to strengthen the party without holding any post.
Mr. Maurya addressed his letter of resignation from the post to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. “When I tried to sensitize and wake the self-respect of Scheduled Tribes (STs), Scheduled Caste (SC) and Backwards, a few leaders described my statement as ‘personal comment’, and tried to weaken the movement of Backwards and subalterns. I am not able to understand, how could statement of a national general secretary be personal and another general secretary be the official statement of the SP. If there is discrimination at the position of the general secretary, there is no point to remain occupying the insignificant post. Hence, I decided to tender my resignation as the national general secretary. I will continue to work for strengthening the party, without holding any position,” he said in the letter.
Mr. Maurya, who is a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) in U.P., joined the SP before 2022 Assembly election after resigning from the post of Cabinet Minister in the Yogi Adityanath government as well as from the BJP, alleging injustice to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the saffron camp. He created a controversy in January 2023 when he said the Ramcharitmanas written by Tulsidas had objectionable language against Backward Classes, Dalits and Adivasis, leading to an uproar, with Hindu Right-wing organisations filing a police complaint against the former Minister. A First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Mr. Maurya at the Hazratganj Police Station in Lucknow under Sections 153A (wanton vilification or attacks upon the religion, race, place of birth, residence), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religious beliefs), and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
