Another blow for BJP in Uttar Pradesh, State minister Swami Prasad Maurya’s son-in-law joins SP

“Although BSP has always worked for the welfare of Buddhists, Mayawati ji did not do enough for the development of the area. I find potential in Samajwadi Party and was inclined to it,” said Shakya.

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Shakya’s entry to politics is rather ironic. In 2012, when his wife Dr Sanghmitra decided to contest the Assembly poll on a BSP ticket from Aliganj constituency in Etah, Shakya was against it. Sanghamitra lost that election. In 2017 local body polls, she campaigned against her mother-in-law Ramkali who contested, and lost, Sirhpura Nagar Panchayat chairperson post as an Independent.

“I do not have any issues with him (Swami Prasad). But, I have problems with Sanghmitra. She was my immediate junior in Lucknow’s King George’s Medical University (KGMU) and we were in love and married in 2010. We have a seven-year-old son, who lives with her now. Later, she joined politics in 2012, and we all know how politics could ruin families. We lived separately since. I now have joined politics as there is no such responsibility and I want to work for the development of Sankassa,” Shakya said.

Shakya said he had earlier worked as resident doctor at KGMU for around two years, and presently runs a hospital in Farrukhabad and a cancer hospital in Lucknow.