Swami Prasad Maurya meets Akhilesh Yadav: 'We will make BJP shrink to 45 seats'

Swami Prasad Maurya, who recently resigned from the Yogi Adiyanath cabinet, met Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav along with his associates on Thursday and said an official announcement of his joining the party will be made on Friday.

Taking a jibe at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state, he said in the upcoming Assembly polls in the state, they will defeat the BJP and push them back to the same number of seats they had before 2017, when the SP was in power. "A formal meeting was held with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and I introduced my associates to him. The official announcement will be made tomorrow. We will make BJP shrink to 45 seats like it was before 2017," Swami Prasad Maurya told media persons on Thursday.

Dharam Singh Saini became the third minister on Thursday who has resigned from the Yogi Adiyanath government in the last three days. Three ministers have resigned as cabinet ministers in the Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh.

In their resignation letters, the ministers have accused the BJP government of having a "callous attitude" towards Dalits, farmers, the unemployed youth and those belonging to other backward classes. The spate of resignations began with Swami Prasad Maurya quitting the cabinet. Maurya, a prominent leader from the OBC community, had joined the BJP from BSP. Dara Singh Chauhan had resigned as minister on Wednesday. Yadav has welcomed both Chauhan and Saini to SP. Samajwadi Party has stitched a coalition of smaller parties for the assembly polls and has emerged as the main rival of the ruling BJP in the state. Earlier BJP MLAs Mukesh Verma, Vinay Shakya, Avtar Singh Bhadana, Roshan Lal Verma, Brijesh Prajapati and Bhagwati Sagar resigned from the party.

Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7.
(ANI)