Another UP minister quits

Lucknow: In another jolt to the ruling BJP in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, OBC leader Dara Singh Chauhan resigned from the Yogi Adityanath cabinet on Wednesday and appeared to be headed towards the Samajwadi Party (SP).

A day earlier – as BJP leaders brainstormed in Delhi on the UP assembly polls – state Labour Minister Swami Prasad Maurya quit. Three other BJP MLAs also announced their resignation from the party on Tuesday.

Though Maurya, a prominent Other Backward Class (OBC) leader, has not made it clear that he is joining the Samajwadi Party, the SP has tweeted a welcome message.

The recent developments appear to strengthen the SP’s influence among the non-Yadav OBCs in the state, less than a month before the crucial elections that will also have an impact on the 2024 parliamentary polls.

Chauhan said he had worked with dedication for the past five years but Dalits, the OBCs and the unemployed did not get justice from the BJP government.

“It was the poor who had made the government but others took all the advantage in the past five years,” he said, after sending the resignation letter to Governor Anandiben Patel.

Chauhan, the Minister for Forests and Environment, said he had been informing the party high command about the problems all through. —(PTI)