BAREILLY: Senior Samajwadi Party leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Veerpal Singh Yadav resigned from the party along with his supporters Wednesday, saying the party has "deviated" from the principles.
The leader, considered close to SP patriarch and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, alleged lack of support from the party to him in his "fight against communal forces".
"The party has deviated from the principles for which it was founded by Mulayam Singh Yadav and I am resigning from it," Yadav told newspersons here.
"We used to oppose communal forces and the wrong policies of the government and were not afraid of going to the jail for this. We used to stand solidly, specially with those belonging to the weaker sections and minorities but for the past 20 months, the SP has not been able to oppose the damaging policies of the BJP," he said.
He claimed that none of the party's office-bearers contacted him when he was booked for allegedly "exposing the reality of some BJP workers who were targeting a section of society in the garb of kanwariyas."
"Recently, BJP workers in the garb of Kanwariyas not only targeted one section of society but also harassed people at large. When I exposed the reality of Kanwariyas , a case was lodged against me and none of the office bearers even made a phone call in my support," Veerpal Singh Yadav said.
"When I will not get any support from the party in my fight against communal forces what is the use of me being a part of it," he asked.
Veerpal Singh Yadav has been associated with Mulayam Singh Yadav since the time the party was formed.
He has been district unit president of party's Bareilly unit for 21 years.