SP chief is more dangerous than Modi: BSP to Muslims

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has asked Muslims to beware of the Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and termed him as “even more dangerous than Narendra Modi”.

“During the Gujarat riots when Narendra Modi was the chief minister, 42 Muslims were killed but during the Samajwadi regime in UP, 187 Muslims have lost their lives in communal clashes. If you hate Mr Modi, you should also hate Mulayam Singh Yadav and his party,” said BSP general secretary Naseemuddin Siddiqui, while addressing a Bhaichara Sammelan in Sambhal. Mr Siddiqui added the SP talks about Muslim welfare only when elections are round the corner but conveniently forgets about them later. He alleged that the SP is using Muslims merely as a vote bank.

The sudden change in the BSP strategy is apparently aimed at depleting Muslim support to the Samajwadi Party in the upcoming assembly elections.

BSP president Mayawati has directed her party leaders to create awareness among the Muslim voters about the proximity between the SP and the BJP.

The party will focus on the SP’s past association with the BJP and the ‘warm relations’ between Narendra Modi and Mulayam Singh Yadav.

“Mulayam Singh Yadav’s recent statement that the surgical strikes were carried out on his advice to the Prime Minister, Modi’s presence at the family weddings in the Yadav clan, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s refusal to target the Prime Minister and vice-versa, and the SP pulling out of the grand alliance in Bihar to help the BJP are proof of the closeness between the two parties,” said a BSP functionary.

The BSP plans to hold meetings in western UP that has a dominant Muslim population. The SP is already on a weak footing in the region after the Muzaffarnagar riots and the BSP will try to win over Muslim and along with Jatav votes so that it can increase its tally in the elections.