Swamy Prasad Maurya, formerly with the Mayawati led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) joined the BJP on Monday in the presence of BJP president Amit Shah, BJP general secretary in charge of UP Om Mathur, state unit chief Keshav Prasad Maurya, senior leaders Rameshwar Chaurasia and Shrikant Sharma.
Welcoming him to the party, Mr Keshav Prasad Maurya said that his namesake had been "misused by his former party" and would help BJP in countering the corrupt rule of Samajwadi Party and BSP. "Na gunda raj, na bhrashtaachaar, 2017 main BJP ka raj (no gundaism, neither corruption, in 2017 we will see the victory in UP)," he added.
The new inductee said, "several of my other colleagues will also be joining the BJP in Lucknow, including former minister Vinay Shakya."
"I want to thank the BJP leaders, this house (BJP) is new to me, but the way Prime Minister Modi is providing leadership to sarva samaj has inspired me to join," he said. "I was in BSP till now because it had been founded by Kanshi Ram on the ideals of Babasaheb Ambedkar. But when I saw that mission was on sale, ideals were being murdered, I had to leave," he added.
Mr Maurya had quit the BSP after he made a series of allegations against Ms Mayawati on selling of party tickets for pecuniary considerations.
Mr Maurya is MLA from Padrauna in Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh and counts Central and eastern parts of the state as his area of influence. He belongs to the Kushwaha community, a part of non-Yadav OBC grouping common to UP and Bihar. He was, before he fell out with BSP chief Mayawati, the leader of the opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
