Senior BSP leader Maurya quits party, Mayawati slams him

With Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh only a few months away, BSP was jolted today, with its senior leader Swami Prasad Maurya quitting the party while attacking its chief Mayawati who slammed the "habitual party-hopper".
62-year-old Maurya, the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, said he felt "suffocated" and accused Mayawati of "auctioning" tickets for next year's Assembly polls.
The MLA from Padrauna Assembly constituency and a minister in the former Mayawati government left BSP amid speculation that he might join the ruling Samajwadi Party and could be made a minister when Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav expands his Council of Ministers on June 27.

"I feel suffocated and cannot continue in the party any more," he said at a hurriedly-convened press conference here.
"Today I have written a letter informing her (Mayawati) that I am relinquishing all party posts," he said.
Attacking the BSP chief, Maurya said, "Tickets are being openly auctioned by Mayawati on a large scale. She is not making the right choice of candidates. Tickets are not only on sale in the party, they are being auctioned."

He also accused Mayawati of "murdering" the values and principles of B R Ambedkar and BSP founder Kanshi Ram.
To a question, Maurya said he would announce his next course of action soon.

He is said to be in close touch with senior SP leaders Shivpal Singh Yadav and Mohd Azam Khan, giving rise to rumours that he was cosying up to the ruling party in the state.
Soon after Maurya announced his resignation, Mayawati told media that he had quit as he was unhappy after she refused to accept his demand for giving tickets not only to him but also to his son and daughter.
"I would have expelled in a few days. He has done a great favour to the party by leaving it himself," she said.
Slamming Maurya as a "habitual party-hopper", she said she had not only accepted him in her party fold but also had given him the coveted post of LoP in the state Assembly.

She dared Maurya to disclose as to how much money he had paid her for his party ticket to contest the last polls.
Mayawati said Maurya was insisting for tickets not only for himself but also for his son and daughter. "I said nothing doing. BSP does not encourage dynastic politics," she said.
To questions, Maurya said he has not resigned from the
post of Leader of the BSP Legislature party as he had been elected by MLAs and they, along with the people of his constituency, will decide his fate.
Maurya's resignation comes as a jolt to BSP as he was a major backward caste face of the party. He had garnered a lot of support of the most backward classes (MBCs) and played a crucial role in forming BSP's base among Kushwahas, Mauryas, Shakyas and Sainis.

Maurya said Ambedkar dedicated his life for the sake of ensuring rights to the Dalits and BSP founder Kashi Ram too spent his life to strengthen the party and give the Dalits their rightful place in the society.
"But Mayawati is murdering those values and principles and has stooped to the level of not only selling party tickets but auctioning them to the highest bidder," he alleged.
"...It is worse than auctioning. In auctioning tenders are floated. But here bidding is done repeatedly," he alleged.
Maurya alleged that Mayawati's "hunger for money has crossed all limits" and she has now adopted the formula "jiski jitni thaili bhari, uski utni bhagidari (the richest will have the biggest share) instead of "jiski jitni sankhya bhari uski utni bhagidari, (the representation will be based on number) - the original slogan of Kanshi Ram."

Contending that genuine workers were feeling demoralised because of Mayawati's actions, Maurya said, "I myself feel insulted in the party. If I cannot serve the people or the party, then what meaning do these posts hold for me?"
Mayawati said if Maurya had not quit on his own, she would have expelled him soon.
"Maurya had often been giving statements other than the party line... He had been once with SP Chief Mulauam Singh Yadav and like him he believes in dynastic rule," she said.
"He had been seeking ticket for his son and daughter in the coming elections like in 2012 but I had clearly told him that it will not be done as BSP does not believe in this kind of dynastic politics," she said.

She said all those quitting the party have been making the same claim that Mayawati has become 'daulat ki beti' (daughter of money) in place of 'dalit ki beti' (daughter of dalit) as they have nothing else to accuse her of.
On speculation that Maurya might join SP soon, she said that would be the right party for him as that party encourages dynasty, giving tickets to sons and grandsons and looking at others only after no one in the family is left out.
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In his letter to the BSP supremo, Maurya said her "polluted ideology" was pushing the party towards doom and was like throwing water on the dreams of Kanshi Ram.

In his hard-hitting statement issued at the press conference, he said Kanshi Ram always respected party workers but she was "gagging" their voice and making them work like "slaves".
"Mere observance of birth and death anniversaries does not make anyone an Ambedkarite," he said, adding while Kanshi Ram used to take along Dalits and backward, Mayawati was focussing on a particular caste.
He also accused Mayawati of pushing Backwards into the BJP fold as part of her understanding with the saffron party and her actions appear to be strengthening BJP and favouring it in the coming polls.
Maurya claimed that in 2012 elections, 130 tickets were changed at the last moment because of money power following which despite BSP being in a position to come to power, it was the SP which got the opportuity to form government.

"Had you analysed your decisions of 2012, BSP would not have got out at 'zero' in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls," Maurya wrote to Mayawati.
He said though she wants the vote and support of other backwards and other dalits, she did not favour their leaders and always tried to crush emerging leadership in these sections.