LUCKNOW: Accusing sacked SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav of trying to cobble up an alliance of Congress and Akhilesh Yadav faction of Samajwadi Party under BJP's influence, BSP chief Mayawati said that he was doing so to ensure the division of Muslim votes.
"It's a 'design' to divide the anti-BJP votes and Ram Gopal is working," Mayawati said at a press conference on Sunday while announcing the fourth and final list of her party candidates for UP East, comprising 101 names.
So far, the party has announced candidates for 401 out of total 403 seats, leaving Duddhi and Obra, which have been declared reserved for scheduled tribes. In the Sunday list released by Mayawati upper castes have got an upper hand.
Considering that upper castes and OBC's dominated the caste dynamics in eastern UP, maximum 37 tickets have been given to upper caste candidates, including 19 Brahmins and 16 Thakurs. Besides, the next significant chunk of 34 seats has gone to OBCs followed by 20 Dalits and 10 Muslim candidates.
Out of the 101, BSP could bag just 11 seats in 2012 including Padrauna which was won by party’s former state chief and legislature party leader Swami Prasad Maurya. Maurya is now with BJP. Mayawati has replaced five sitting MLAs, including Maurya.
While, son of a mafia-turned-politician, Harishankar Tewari, Vinay Tewari has been given a ticket to contest from Chillupar, his cousin Ganesh Shankar Pandey has replaced BSP’s Paniara MLA Deo Narayan Singh. Singh, in turn, has been shifted to Sahjanwa in Gorakhpur district.
In Padrauna, represented by Swami Prasad Maurya, who defected to BJP in June last year, Javed Iqbal has been fielded while six sitting MLAs have been repeated as well. Meanwhile, at a meeting later in the day, the BSP chief called upon the party men to intensify party’s poll campaign as people were tired of Akhilesh government which was engaged in fierce family feud and failed to deliver anything positive during its five years tenure but the lawlessness in the state, BSP chief Mayawati released BSP chief Mayawati released the fourth and final list of 101 party candidates here on Sunday.
Exhorting her UP party cadre to stick strictly to the model code of conduct and work hard with the resolve to bring back the Bahujan Samaj Party's Sarvjan Sukhay, Sarvajan Hitay' (Happiness or all, goodness for all) government in Uttar Pradesh, the BSP chief took stock of party’s poll preparedness at the ground level here again on Sunday.
"People want freedom from the prevailing ‘jungle raaj’ as well as the communal forces which are rising head in the state," Mayawati told her party workers.
Calling BSP a disciplined organization and a movement in itself, the BSP chief came down heavily on her political rivals including BJP, SP and Congress for befooling people with fake promises which were never fulfilled. She referred to Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a government of mere slogans and condemned it for the policies like demonetisation. the economy.