"BJP has left everyone behind in corruption...," RSSP chief Swami Prasad Maurya

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister on Saturday asserted that it was the Samajwadi Party's "friendship" with Azam Khan, Atiq Ahmed and Mukhtar Ansari that led to the wiping out of SP in the state

"Although Keshav Prasad Maurya is Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, he is a rote learner of the RSS and VHP. The way he is being directed, he says the same. He has no ideas of his own. If we talk about corruption, the Supreme Court has disclosed the electoral bond data that is on the site of the Elections Commission. The BJP has left everyone behind in the corruption. One can learn good Guru Mantras from the BJP. Keshav Prasad ji should give brief details on electoral bond data, and then he should blame anyone else," he added.

The former Uttar Pradesh minister, who left the Samajwadi Party and formed the Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj Party in February, extended support to Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) candidate Chandrashekhar from the Nagina Lok Sabha seat.

"The INDIA bloc is contesting elections all over the country. We have announced our support for the INDIA bloc. But in some places, some of their candidates are weak, and candidates of other Opposition parties are strong who are not part of the alliance. Wherever INDIA bloc is weak and candidates from other parties are strong, we will support them," he added.

On fielding a different candidate from the INDIA bloc in Kushinagar and Nagina, Maurya said, "In many places, the INDIA bloc has fielded very weak candidates, it seems that those candidates have been selected at the behest of the BJP, due to which we are supporting whichever candidate is defeating the BJP there."

When asked about Sanghmitra Maurya's ticket being cut from the BJP, Maurya said that this is a common process, someone's ticket is cut and given, adding that the "BJP only likes people who can become slaves."

Addressing a press conference, Keshav Prasad Maurya said that "Akhilesh Yadav's three friends, Azam Khan, Atiq Ahmed and Mukhtar Ansari, of whom two have gone and one is left, have led to the wiping out of SP in the state."

On April 15, mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were shot dead by assailants while the duo were interacting with the media. Mukhtar Ahmed died of cardiac arrest in a hospital in Banda last month.

The Lok Sabha election 2024 in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases, from April 19 to June 1. Votes polled in the seven phases of the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha election 2024 will be counted on June 4.

In the 2019 elections, turning the arithmetic of the SP-BSP 'Mahagatbandhan' in Uttar Pradesh upside down, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal (S) won 64 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats. The partners in the alliance, Akhilesh Yadav's SP and Mayawati's BSP, could only muster 15 seats.

The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases starting April 19. (ANI)