Lucknow: Dropping enough hints that Samajwadi Party's doors were open for former BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday described him as "the right person in the wrong party".
"The fact that Swami Prasad Maurya was the right person in the wrong party has been amply proved," Yadav said, a day after the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly quit BSP accusing its leader Mayawati of auctioning party tickets for the 2017 Assembly election. The Chief Minister was talking to media persons after a meeting of the state cabinet.
"Maurya is a strong leader. We have good relations. It is good that he left BSP," Yadav said.
Though the chief minister said that it was for Maurya to decide which party he would join, speculation is rife that he could be inducted into SP and might even get a berth in the council of ministers when it is expanded on Monday.
"Where he will go, it is up to him to take a decision," Yadav said to repeated questions on whether Maurya would join the ruling party and get a ministerial berth.
Attacking the BSP chief, Maurya had on Wednesday said, "Tickets are being openly auctioned by Mayawati on a large scale. She is not making the right choice of candidates. Tickets are not only on sale in the party, they are being auctioned."
The 62-year-old leader said he felt "suffocated" in the BSP and could not continue in the party any longer. Hours after his announcement, Mayawati said he was a "habitual party-hopper" and she would have expelled him within a few days for insisting on tickets not only for him but also to his son and daughter as BSP does not promote dynastic politics.
Mayawati had said SP would be the right party for him as it encourages dynasty, giving tickets to sons and grandsons and looking at others only after no one in the family is left out.
