‘We joined SP for being a party of the ideology of Ram Manohar Lohia, not Periyar’: Ex-SP chief whip

During the Rajya Sabha elections for 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party suffered a setback as a section of its own MLAs cross-voted in favour of the BJP, helping the party pick an extra seat and leaving the SP with one less. The biggest surprise was the crossover by SP chief whip Manoj Kumar Pandey, the MLA from Unchahar Assembly constituency in Raebareli, who quit his post before apparently helping the BJP nominee, Sanjay Seth, win.

Unlike other SP MLAs now seen as with the BJP, Pandey has been silent on his reasons for distancing himself from the party, which he joined as a student leader. He speaks to The Indian Express about the reasons and timing behind his decision, and argues that the SP failed to take action against those “humiliating… Sanatan Dharma, Hindu gods and goddesses and also Brahmins (Pandey is a Brahmin leader)”.

I joined the SP after being associated with Netaji (late SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav). You ask me what went wrong… it is the party established by Netaji which is now sidelining the people who stood by him. Instead, people who have no ground or base and failed to get even a decent vote share for the party in their respective areas are being given importance.

I am Ph.D in Political Science from BHU. I have studied (Ram Manohar) Lohia and know that the basic mantra of the Samajwadi ideology is respect for all castes, religions and sects. It never differentiated in the name of religion or caste.

However, today, in a country like India with 135 crore population, out of which over 90 crore follow Sanatan Dharma or are Hindu, a person who lost the Vidhan Sabha election by over 50,000 votes (Swami Prasad Maurya, who has also resigned from the SP) continuously attacked Hindu gods and