Akhilesh Yadav takes ‘pawn’ dig at Keshav Maurya amid speculations of rift in UP BJP, deputy CM hits back

Samajwadi Party (SP) president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the speculated rift in the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit, reported PTI.

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and UP’s deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.(File)

Talking to reporters in Lucknow, Yadav said that he had heard that UP’s deputy chief minister, Keshav Prasad Maurya, is a “pawn”. Maurya, however, hit back at Yadav for his comments, calling him a “Congress’ pawn”.

Yadav was speaking to reporters after unveiling a ‘Samvidhan-Manstambh’ at the SP headquarters in Lucknow.

He also targeted the Yogi Adityanath government on the issue of corruption in the state.

“The government used to claim that there is a zero-tolerance policy, especially on corruption and law and order. But now their leaders themselves are saying we have not seen such corruption in our political life,” Yadav said, referring to a remark by a former state minister, who later backtracked from his statement.

“Corruption is being exposed because some people have become pawns,” Yadav said, hinting at the speculated rift within the BJP, without taking any name.

“I heard that ‘Maurya ji mohre hain’ (deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya is a pawn), a password to Delhi’s Wi-Fi,” he added, hinting at Maurya’s closeness with the central BJP leadership, according to PTI.

Maurya, however, reacted to Yadav’s comments, calling him a “Congress’ pawn” and urging him to save his party from extinction.

“Samajwadi Party leader Shree Akhilesh Yadav ji, who has become a pawn of the Congress, should focus on saving the SP from extinction rather than harbouring misconceptions about the BJP, targeting the backward sections and insulting them,” Maurya wrote on X.

“The BJP will repeat the 2017 (state assembly poll performance) in 2027. The lotus (the BJP’s poll symbol) has bloomed and will continue to bloom,” he added.

The exchange comes amid a buzz about a rift between the Yogi Adityanath-led government and the BJP.

The BJP’s below-par performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha poll in Uttar Pradesh was the trigger point that opened the alleged fault lines between the party organisation and the state government. The Lok Sabha poll results on June 4 brought down the BJP tally in Uttar Pradesh to 33 MPs from 62 in 2019.

As the process of reviewing the poll results began, party workers accused the government of neglecting and overlooking them.

At the BJP’s state executive committee meeting in Lucknow on July 14, Maurya had asserted that the “Sangthan” (organisation) was, is, and will remain greater than the “Sarkar” (government). Yogi, at the same meeting, asserted that overconfidence kept the party away from achieving desired results.

Maurya, who had skipped some state cabinet meetings amid speculation about his growing differences with the chief minister, had also met Nadda in New Delhi.

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