Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Wednesday slammed senior leader Swami Prasad Maurya who quit the party, saying he had done a great favour by resigning and dared him to prove his charge that tickets were being "auctioned" by her.
Soon after Maurya, the Leader of Opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly announced his resignation, Mayawati told media that he had quit as he was unhappy after she refused to accept his demand for giving tickets not only to him but also to his son and daughter. "I would have expelled in a few days. He has done a great favour to the party by leaving it himself," she said.
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Mayawati dared Maurya to disclose as to how much money he had paid her for his party ticket to contest the last Assembly polls.
Maurya said earlier in the day that he felt "suffocated" in the party and accused Mayawati of "auctioning" tickets for next year's Assembly polls. Mayawati said Maurya was insisting for tickets not only for himself but also for his son and daughter. "I said nothing doing. BSP does not encourage dynastic politics," she said.
"May be Samajwadi Party will give tickets to Maurya and his son and daughter," she said. Speculation is rife that Maurya might join the ruling Samajwadi Party and could be made a minister when Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav expands his Council of Ministers on June 27.
Slamming Maurya as a "habitual party-hopper", Mayawati said she had not only accepted him in her party fold but also had given him the coveted post of LoP in the state Assembly.
