Crossing the bar: Meet SP Maurya, who quit UP Cabinet ahead of polls

Maurya represents the new strain in the BJP

The taxonomy of Swami Prasad Maurya’s political career is well known: a five-time MLA and an influential non-Yadav OBC leader from Uttar Pradesh who has won the last three Assembly elections from Padrauna in the Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh.

Maurya, 68, began his career as convener of the Yuva Lok Dal in 1980s, went to the Janata Dal and joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 1996. He won Assembly elections on a BSP ticket in 1996 and eventually became a minister in the BJP-supported Mayawati government a year later. He was considered second in command to Mayawati, and stayed