Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Sunday reiterated that she will agree to an alliance with other parties for any election only if her party was given a “respectable share of seats”, reported ANI.
“We will agree to alliance anywhere [and] in any election only when we get a respectable share of seats, otherwise BSP will contest alone,” she said in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow. States like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan will go to polls later this year. Earlier in in July, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said her party will contest the upcoming Assembly elections with a coalition partner only if it gets a “respectable number of seats”.
She also attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party, accusing it of trying to hide its failures by playing diversionary tactics. “They have not fulfilled their election promises,” ANI quoted her saying. “They are trying to use Atal ji’s [Atal Bihari Vajpayee] death for political gains.”
Mayawati termed mob lynching in the name of cow vigilantism as a “blot on democracy” and blamed the BJP governments of laxity and indifference on the matter, reported PTI.
“These activities of the BJP governments [against Dalits, tribals, backwards, Muslims and Christians] are going on since inception and are result of the BJP’s intention to go against the Constitution and maintaining a step-motherly relationship with the Constitution,” she said. “This has been the part of the basic policy of the BJP, which has assumed alarming proportions after they came to power.”
Asked about the Bhim Army chief Chandrashekar Azad, who was released from jail on Friday, referring to her as buaji (aunt), Mayawati said she “had no relation with such people”. “I am only related to the common man, Dalits, adivasis [and] people from backward castes,” ANI quoted her as saying.
On demonetisation, Mayawati said it was implemented in an unplanned manner leading to “financial emergency”. “It exploited the labourers, farmers, small traders and hardworking people,” she said, according to PTI. “Time has come to seek a report. The BJP has no consolation to offer to the people in the aftermath of demonetisation.”
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