SP national general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya quits party post: ‘Only my remarks called personal’

He added, “Through my efforts, the support base among the backward classes, Dalits and Adivasis has increased. How can the increased support base be that of the party’s and the attempts made to keep that support base intact be personal?”

संज्ञानार्थ,@yadavakhilesh@samajwadiparty pic.twitter.com/SYPBhEvhe8

— Swami Prasad Maurya (@SwamiPMaurya) February 13, 2024

Maurya further said, “When there is discrimination in the post of the national general secretary, I feel it makes no sense to hold such a post. Hence, I submit my resignation from the post of the national general secretary. I am ready to work to strengthen the party without the post.”

In his resignation letter, Maurya also mentioned that his proposal to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in January-February last year to take out a rath yatra for the demand of a caste census and other issues was overlooked.

Contacted by The Indian Express, SP national spokesperson Rajendra Choudhary said, “I still don’t know if he has resigned. It is something that will be taken up by our national president. I can’t comment on it right now.”

Maurya had jumped from the BJP to the SP before the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election after resigning from his post of cabinet minister. He was made a member of the Legislative Council by the SP in June 2022 and was made the party national general secretary in January last year.

In January last year, Maurya had kicked off a row after he had said that the Ramcharitmanas is disrespectful towards the Dalits, OBCs and women. He sought the removal of parts of the epic. An FIR was lodged against Maurya at Lucknow’s Hazratganj police station over the remarks.

While this was slammed by the BJP, some within the SP were also unhappy with Maurya’s remarks, saying they were anti-Hindu. Several Brahmin leaders in the SP, including SP MLA Manoj Kumar Pandey, the party’s chief whip in the state Assembly, were unhappy with Maurya’s remarks on religion.

Pandey had said that Maurya’s words are not statements but “bakwaas (nonsense)”. “He only utters such bakwaas. What I don’t understand is why his knowledge regarding all this stayed within him when he was with the BJP between 2017 and 2018. Then, he was sitting in power and reaping its benefits,” said Pandey.

In September last year, Maurya spoke on similar lines saying Hinduism was a religion only for the Brahmins. In November last year, Maurya had questioned “how can Goddess Laxmi be born with four hands?”.

Many within the SP, who feared alienation of the upper castes in UP, had repeatedly questioned why Maurya is allowed by the top leadership of the SP to give such statements