Swami Prasad Maurya May Quit Samajwadi Party, Float RSSP

Swami Prasad Maurya resigned from National General Secretary post of SP citing neglect by party on February 13. He is likely to relaunch RSSP, a party founded by BSP leader Saheb Singh Dhangar.

Lucknow:Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Swami Prasad Maurya, who recently resigned from the post of National General Secretary of the party, is likely to part ways with SP and come up with a new party. The official announcement will be made at a workers' conference at Talkatora Stadium in Delhi on February 22.

According to sources, Maurya is likely to relaunch the Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj Party (RSSP), which was formed by former BSP leader Saheb Singh Dhangar in 2013. Dhangar, a resident of Aligarh had contested the Assembly elections from BSP in 1993. Later he joined SP and contested elections in 2002. In 2013, he formed RSSP and the party fielded candidates in 2014, 2017 and 2019. Then in 2020, he formed a new party, the Indian Democratic Alliance (IDA) with smaller parties.

Earlier on February 13, Maurya had resigned from the National General Secretary post of SP through a letter to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. He had alleged that he was being neglected in the party. Since then, many senior SP leaders have reached out to him to convince him to remain in the party while the backward and Dalit leaders appealed the SP chief not to accept his resignation.

Recently, senior SP leader Ram Govind Chaudhary reached Maurya's house to convince him to stay in SP.

In his letter to Akhilesh Yadav, Maurya had said that ever since he joined the SP he has tried to increase the support base. He said that in January-February 2023, he had suggested to take out Rath Yatra to stress on issues namely unemployment, inflation and farmers' problems. Although his suggestion was accepted, the yatra was never held, he wrote.

Maurya further said that he has always worked at increasing the party's support base and SP increased its MLAs from 45 in 2017 to 110 in 2022. "Without any demand you sent me to the Legislative Council and appointed me the National General Secretary. Thank you very much for this honour," his letter stated.

He said that during the last campaigning, he received 24 threats and escaped several attacks. He said that FIRs were also lodged against him but, he continued the campaign without worrying about his safety. "It was surprising when instead of remaining silent, senior party leaders tried to break the morale of the workers by making personal statements," he wrote.

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