Lucknow, Mar 10 (PTI) Swami Prasad Maurya, who was a minister in the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government but joined the Samajwadi Party ahead of the assembly polls, was trailing from Fazil Nagar seat in Kushinagar on Thursday, according to poll trends.
Maurya had got 48,944 votes while his BJP rival Surendra Kumar Kushwaha had polled 81,996 votes – the highest among all contestants in Fazil Nagar, till 6 PM, the Election Commission website showed.
Maurya was a cabinet minister in the UP government but quit the BJP and joined the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP on January 14 this year in Lucknow.
The prominent OBC leader had joined the SP with six other BJP MLAs, including rebel minister Dharam Singh Saini, and Apna Dal (Sonelal) legislator Amar Singh Chaudhary.
Maurya was the state Labour Minister and his leaving the BJP was seen as a jolt to the saffron party and a shot in the arm to the SP, considering his influence among the non-Yadav OBCs in the state. PTI ABN KIS TDS TDS
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Source: The Print
