Lucknow: After resigning from the Uttar Pradesh cabinet, former BJP MLA and ex-minister Dharam Singh Saini said on Thursday that the trend of ministers as well as MLAs resigning from the cabinet will continue till January 20.
"We will do whatever Swami Prasad Maurya will say. One minister and one or two MLAs will resign every day till January 20. I have resigned because during the last five years Dalits and backward classes were suppressed. Their public representatives, too, have been exploited and have not gotten any respect. Attention has been given to only one particular category", Saini said, speaking to ETV Bharat.
Maurya and Dara Singh Chauhan, both ex-ministers, similarly quit the cabinet in recent days and have so far been linked to a shift to the Samajwadi Party after they put up pictures with SP chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
"About a year and a half back, about 140 MLAs and some ministers also staged a sit-in in the House regarding this issue, but at the time the protests were suppressed under the pressure of oppressive powers. At that very moment, it was decided that representatives of Dalit, backward and other deprived classes would provide a befitting reply to this when the time comes," Saini further said in his statement.
Dharam Singh Saini, Swami Prasad Maurya, and Dara Singh Chauhan were all BSP leaders before the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. Briefly before the polls, however, they changed camps to BJP, whereafter Saini represented Saharanpur's Nukad constituency.
He was also put in charge of the AYUSH ministry under the Yogi Adityanath government.
Also read: Dharam Singh Saini resigns from UP cabinet, Akhilesh hails him 'social justice warrior'
