BJP hits back as Mayawati accuses it of ‘conspiracies’

Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Sunday mounted a scathing attack on the BJP and blamed the media for spreading “canards” about her party. Hitting back, the BJP said Ms Mayawati was now “depressed” after “able and honest” leaders of her party had begun deserting her and joining the saffron outfit, which had prompted her to make “irritating” remarks.

The BSP president, addressing a massive rally in Azamgarh, in SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s constituency, asked dalits to beware of “conspiracies” by the BJP and assured them the BSP would come to power in the 2017 Assembly polls. She also “clarified” that her party was not against upper castes. Azamgarh has a population of nine lakh dalits.

Ms Mayawati accused the BJP of trying to divert the people’s attention from its own failures by targeting the BSP. “The BJP is taking our ‘rejected maal’. Those leaders who have been denied tickets for their family members and were not working for the party are being welcomed with open arms by the BJP. This goes to prove that the BJP does not have sufficient candidates and it is welcoming outsiders. The leaders who have gone from the BSP were ‘deadwood’, and the party is better off without them,” she said.

The BJP, however, claimed the leaders were leaving the BSP as its chief was only concerned about money and power. “The troika of Congress, SP and BSP has been rattled by the rising popularity of the BJP. BSP supremo Mayawati has made certain irritating remarks out of this depression... One after another able and honest BSP leaders are deserting her sinking ship to join the BJP. That is why she is making graceless remarks against them,” BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said. The BJP said Mayawati’s BSP had never cared for dalit interests or empowerment but only used them for votebank politics. Mr Sharma said her professed commitment to the community was a sham as 1,074 dalits were killed in her tenure and 30,000 cases of atrocities against dalits were registered.

The BJP leader pointed out that while there was “little development” in UP when she was chief minister, the Narendra Modi government had “done a lot”, including opening a fertiliser factory and AIIMS, and distributing LPG connections to poor households, for the state. He also said Ms Mayawati should stop shedding crocodile tears for women’s empowerment and should act against party leaders, including Nasemuddin Siddiqui. for using abusive language against women.