Top priority to form BJP govt in Uttar Pradesh in 2017: Keshav Prasad Maurya

LUCKNOW: Newly appointed Uttar Pradesh BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya today said his top priority was to help the BJP form the next government in the state.

"My first priority is to form BJP government in next assembly election due in 2017," Maurya told PTI.

Maurya, the 47-year-old MP from Phulpur in Allahabad comes from a very humble background and used to sell tea along with his father and sell newspapers to finance his education in his childhood.

Maurya belongs to most backward castes among the OBCs and the move is seen to woo that segment, which comprise 32 per cent of the population.

"BJP is the only party where a common worker can reach the top post. Maurya has been associated with RSS since childhood and had been a full time member of Bajrang Dal and Vihswa Hindu Parishad for 12 years," BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.

Congress leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh alleged that the newly appointed UP BJP president had criminal cases against him.

"Whosoever party appoints its head, is its own right. In reality people in UP are fed up with Modi raj and is gearing up to teach it a lesson. BJP is like a drowned ship and there is resentment among people against it. It is now banking on corrupts and criminals for Achche Din," the Congress leader said.

"You go through his affidavit filed in Lok Sabha elections and most of the cases are politically motivated," Pathak said.

He alleged that whether its BSP government or SP regime, cases were lodged against opponents with political intentions.