OBC leader Swami Prasad Maurya snubbed Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav over alliance talks on Sunday. Maurya said, "Akhilesh must take great care before making a statement on behalf of the bloc." He is currently negotiating with Congress leaders Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi to secure seats for his new party.

Former Samajwadi Party minister says he is negotiating with Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, while Congress signals room for his party in Uttar Pradesh seat-sharing talks

Swami Prasad Maurya, a prominent OBC leader in Uttar Pradesh, has warned Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav against publicly objecting to his bid to join the INDIA bloc, saying a "small leader" must not weigh in when he was already in talks with Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi.

"The Congress is leading the INDIA faction and Mallikarjun Kharge is its convener. Akhilesh must take great care before making a statement on behalf of the bloc," Maurya, a former SP leader, told The Telegraph on Sunday.

Maurya resigned from the SP in 2024 and formed the Apni Janta Party (AJP).

Akhilesh had on Friday said Maurya was not a member of the INDIA bloc and would never be. "We don't welcome him in the alliance. There is no seat to share with him for the Assembly elections," he said.

Maurya said he was in talks with the Congress's Rahul and Priyanka and wondered why "a small leader like Akhilesh Yadav is trying to project himself as the leader of INDIA".

"I am also in touch with Congress's Uttar Pradesh in-charge Rajendra Gautam. Akhilesh is a pygmy in the group, and I don't need his appraisal. I don't need any seat from his quota," Maurya said.

"I don't expect anything from the SP leader. The way he has dumped Azam Khan makes it clear that he is good for nothing," he added.

The Congress and the SP are engaged in seat-share talks for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls next year. The Congress expects to contest 50 per cent of the heartland seats, but Akhilesh has made it clear that the seat-share deal will be based on "winnability" of the candidates and that his party was better placed than the other Opposition forces.

Many SP leaders have said the Congress would not get more than 50 seats to contest out of 403 in the state.

Maurya said he would be happy if the Congress allowed the AJP to contest 10 seats from its share.

"Maurya is very much part of the INDIA bloc and will contest the Uttar Pradesh elections with us," Gautam said, expressing displeasure over the dispute.

Gautam indicated that Maurya could merge the AJP with the Congress. "His party may be with us in future, but currently he will contest in some of the seats as a partner in our alliance," he added.

After being in the BSP for over two decades, Maurya joined the BJP in 2017 and became labour minister in the Yogi Adityanath government. He left the BJP in 2022 and joined the SP, which he left two years later.

Azam Khan factor

SP general secretary Azam Khan was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Saturday arrested in a money-laundering case, shortly after he and his son Abdullah Azam were released from Rampur jail on bail in an alleged dual PAN cards case.

Although Akhilesh had met Azam in prison on October 22 and said he would retain his importance in the party, Azam's wife Tazeen Fatima has often said her family was fighting a "lonely battle".

The ED on Sunday produced Azam in a special court in Ghaziabad, which sent him to 14 days' judicial custody. Sources said the ED would seek his custody to interrogate him in the ₹426-crore money-laundering case related to his Maulana Ali Jauhar University in Rampur.

"We are weighing all legal options. My father opened a university and the government treats it as a crime to think about educating the youths. What else is the reason that the BJP government doesn't want to let him be free?" Abdullah said.

Political analysts believe that escalating the Azam issue would not only polarise the Hindu votes in favour of the BJP but also help the SP in consolidating Muslim votes by claiming that the BJP was anti-minority.

"Maurya's entry in the INDIA bloc will reduce Akhilesh's importance in the alliance. Maurya is a grassroots leader. Besides the OBCs, Maurya is also liked by the Muslims of eastern UP," said Brijesh Govind Rao, a journalist in Kushinagar.

Maurya has represented Kushinagar's Padrauna Assembly seat thrice.