The BJP and Yogi Adityanath suffered a huge blow just before the Uttar Pradesh election, with one minister and four MLAs resigning today to join the party’s main challenger, Akhilesh Yadav. Swami Prasad Maurya, a senior minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, tweeted his resignation letter.
Over the next few hours, four other MLAs close to him – Roshan Lal Verma, Brijesh Prajapati, Bhagwati Sagar and Vinay Shakya – announced their resignations.

Swami Prasad Maurya, a strong OBC (other backward class) leader and five-time MLA, joined the BJP in 2016 after quitting Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). He is a key part of the BJP’s plan to attract OBC voters to counter Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi party.

The other three defectors followed the same route as Mr Maurya – from BSP to BJP to Samajwadi party. “Despite different ideologies, I work wholeheartedly in the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet. But I am resigning because of Dalits, OBC, farmers, the unemployed and small businessmen,” Mr Maurya wrote in his harrowing resignation letter .

He also told reporters: “The impact of my exit on the BJP will be evident after the 2022 parliamentary elections.”

When his letter appeared on Twitter, Akhilesh Yadav tweeted a photo with Mr Maurya welcoming him and his supporters to the Samajwadi party.

The withdrawal reinforces the view that dissatisfaction with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is an issue that the BJP has not yet addressed.

Mr Maurya’s decision has been months in the making. Two months ago, he complained about Yogi Adityanath to federal Home Minister Amit Shah, the source said. But no results were reported.

Sources said Amit Shah had tasked Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to persuade Mr Maurya and his supporters to return. Keshav Prasad Maurya’s first appeal was very public. “I don’t know why Swami Prasad Maurya resigned, but I appeal to him, don’t resign, let’s talk. Hasty decisions can backfire,” he said in a note that did not impress defectors Impression tweeted.

“Why didn’t (Keshav Maurya) think of this sooner? Why does he remember me today? Everyone talks now, but when dialogue is needed, they don’t have time,” Swami Prasad Maurya told NDTV.

If the abrupt exit shocks the BJP, optimism in the opposition camp, which has been joined by one of its key figures, Sharad Pawar, will soar.

Mr Maurya will bring more than a dozen leaders to the party, the National Congress Party (NCP) leader said when announcing his joint campaign with UP’s Akhilesh Yadav. “Change is coming. Today Maurya has resigned and 13 MLAs are going with him. In the next few days you will see many more quit,” he said in Mumbai.

Lucknow’s exit began when Yogi Adityanath and senior BJP leaders arrived in Delhi to discuss Uttar Pradesh’s election strategy.

Complete News Source : NDTV