The Significance Of The Minister Who Quit In Uttar Pradesh: 5 Points

In a major setback for the BJP weeks ahead of the state assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, a key minister along with three MLAs has quit the party. Swami Prasad Maurya, a top UP minister, and influential backward caste leader, has joined the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party. Here are five points on why this is a loss for the BJP:

1. Swami Prasad Maurya is an OBC strongman from eastern UP who served as UP's Minister of labour, employment & coordination in Yogi Adityanath's cabinet. His allegations of oppression of marginalised communities under the BJP will hurt the party in the crucial state elections. "Despite a divergent ideology, I worked with dedication in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet. But because of the grave oppression of Dalits, OBCs, farmers, unemployed and small businessmen, I am resigning," he said in his resignation letter.
2. Non-Yadav OBCs were critical to the BJP's win in the state assembly in 2017. Mr Maurya's defection to the Samajwadi Party will be a shot in the arm to Akhilesh Yadav who is trying to project himself as the leader of all backward communities. It will also hurt the ruling party that was banking on five-time MLA Mr Maurya to consolidate non-Yadav OBCs to take on Yadav-dominated SP. In a warning to the BJP, Mr Maurya told reporters, "What impact my exit will have on the BJP will be obvious after the 2022 assembly election."
3. Akhilesh Yadav has been actively wooing non-Yadav OBCs, who constitute 35% of the OBC population in the state, to shed the image of being partisan against them. He has been trying to stitch together an alliance of smaller caste-based parties like the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), the Janwadi Socialist party (JSP), the Mahan Dal, and others that have little state-wide influence. Mr Yadav has also resolved his dispute with his uncle Shivpal Yadav who had managed to dent his prospects in many seats in the last assembly polls. Mr Maurya's defection is a big win for SP in its strategy to consolidate OBCs.
4. Former BJP ally and influential OBC leader O.P. Rajbhar's Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party aligning with the Samajwadi Party was another major boost for Mr Yadav in his strategy to consolidate a coalition of smaller single-caste based parties.
5. Two OBC and one SC MLAs who had defected from the BSP to the BJP during the last state elections have also quit the party after Mr Maurya's resignation from the cabinet. Three-time MLA Roshan Lal (OBC), four-time MLA Bhagwati Sagar (SC), and first-time MLA Brijesh Prajapati (OBC) were the others who quit the BJP today.