'Keshav Prasad Maurya had CM ambitions, his election bid was sabotaged': Congress' Ajay Rai amid reports of rift within UP BJP

Amid tensions within Uttar Pradesh BJP, Congress state chief Ajay Rai has claimed that Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had the ambition to become the chief minister, but his election bid was sabotaged. Maurya, considered a heavyweight leader in the party from the OBC community, was the state BJP chief when the saffron party came to power in 2017. He was expecting to become the chief minister, but the BJP went ahead with Yogi Adityanath. 

In the last assembly polls, Maurya lost his own seat, Sirathu, to Samajwadi Party's Pallavi Patel. There have been reports that all is not well between Maurya and Yogi Adityanath. 

On Wednesday, Ajay Rai said that Maurya's pain is of Sirathu. "He lost the election in Sirathu, this is the pain that is following him. This is the pain between him (Keshav Prasad Maurya) and the chief minister which the public has understood and the public is constantly responding to it."

After setbacks in the Lok Sabha elections, some BJP leaders led by Keshav Prasad Maurya have trained their guns at CM Yogi. They claim that workers did not get their work done and they stayed at their homes, leading to the loss of the BJP. According to some, bureaucrats and officials don't listen to party workers and leaders. 

In what was seen as an attack on CM Yogi, Maurya said on Wednesday that the party was bigger than the government. "The organisation is bigger than the government, the pain of the workers is my pain. No one is bigger than the organisation, the workers are the pride," the post shared by the office of the deputy CM on X said. It quoted a part of Maurya's address during the BJP's working committee meeting in Lucknow on Sunday. 

"The organisation was bigger than the government and will always be bigger. The doors of my residence at 7 Kalidas Marg are open to everyone. I am deputy chief minister later but first I am a worker," Maurya said in the meeting held on Sunday. He also urged all the ministers, MLAs, and public representatives to respect party workers. 

Maurya met BJP president J P Nadda in New Delhi on Tuesday amid rumours of a rift between him and Adityanath. Neither the BJP nor Maurya said anything about the meeting while senior BJP leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Minister Swatantra Dev Singh and Finance Minister Suresh Khanna, have also remained mum.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav today shared a cryptic post, saying bring 100 MLAs and form government. It was seen as an offer to Maurya, who wanted to become the chief minister.

(With inputs from PTI)