LUCKNOW & NEW DELHI: BSP president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati asserted that the money detected in the two bank accounts — one her party’s and other her brother Anand Kumar’s — were accounted for to the last rupee.
“It belongs to the party and was deposited in the bank as a routine exercise strictly under the rules,” she said.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, the BSP supremo accused the BJP-led Centre of misusing state machinery to tarnish the image of her party.
“The BJP is misusing state machinery to malign the BSP’s name. The party has followed its own rules and has deposited all its funds into the bank as a routine exercise,” the BSP chief claimed.
Accusing the BJP of a political vendetta, Mayawati said many other political parties too had deposited huge amounts of money after the November 8 note ban announcement, but the BJP government was targeting only BSP, “owing to its anti-Dalit mentality”.
And the saffron party retorted to the backward-caste leader’s charge, saying Dalit empowerment and corruption are not synonymous with each other.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the BJP rejected the allegations “with the contempt they deserve” as they “actually insult the scheduled castes”.
“If the Enforcement Directorate does a routine exercise, why is she so rattled? Will your corruption be hidden in the name of Dalits,” he asked.
“The money was not deposited in August, September and October but soon after the demonetisation decision. Now we are getting signals of why she has been opposing the note ban so strongly from the first day,” he added.
“Party workers bring money in high-value currency notes as it is easy to carry. This money is donated by the party cadre before demonetisation. It does not belong to any capitalist or corporate house,” she said.
The Enforcement Directorate had found cash deposits of over Rs 100 crores in the account belonging to the BSP and `1.43 crore in the account of BSP chief Mayawati’s brother in a branch of United Bank of India in New Delhi late on Monday. The amount was deposited after the November 8 announcement of demonetisation.
“They (the BJP) are afraid of our popularity and they know that in UP we will from the next government. So they want to stop us at any cost,” she said. “As I exposed the BJP plot of putting pressure on the SP forge an alliance with the Congress yesterday, the BJP, in a state of shock and frustration, started targeting the BSP and family members of the party chief.”
Launching an attack on the media, Mayawati alleged that “BJP-managed” news TV channels and dailies had blown up the issue of cash deposits out of proportion.
She exhorted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make public details of all bank accounts of the BJP as well as deposits by the party after demonetisation.