Mayawati's name as next PM pushed at BSP workers' meet, rejects Rahul Gandhi's credentials for top post

They claimed that Rahul Gandhi, similar to his foreign national mother, could not nurture a hope to lead the nation.

BSP chief Mayawati with Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi (File | EPS)

LUCKNOW: Pushing the name of party president Mayawati as the next Prime Minister of the country, Bahujan Samaj Party leadership sent a terse message to Congress by claiming that Rahul Gandhi was not fit to lead the country as it would again propagate dynastic politics.

Echoing the BSP chief's long standing ambition, senior leaders of the blue brigade gave a clarion call to party worker in Lucknow on Monday to ensure that 'Behenji' became the next PM replacing Narendra Modi.

Holding its first workers' conference of Lucknow-Kanpur division in state capital on Monday, the national Vice-President of the BSP, Vir Singh and party coordinator Jai Prakash Singh, the two associates of Mayawati, exhorted the cadre to gear up for 2019 big battle.

The leaders, while addressing the party workers, put the Congress and the BJP in the same bracket accusing both the national parties of befooling people of the country. Thus BSP supremo's intent to lead any alliance formed against the BJP ahead of 2019 was made amply clear on Monday.

In a surprising contrast to the bonhomie seen during the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy two months ago, the BSP leaders put a big question mark over the participation of Congress in the prospective SP-BSP grand alliance ahead of 2019 rejecting Rahul Gandhi's credentials to lead the country.

They claimed that Rahul Gandhi, similar to his foreign national mother, could not nurture a hope to lead the nation. Attacking dynastic politics, the BSP vice president said that the upcoming elections would be decided not by 'pet' (stomach) but by 'peti' (ballot box).

Sharing party's strategy with party workers, national coordinator Jai Prakash Singh said that entire country wanted to see Behenji as PM. Likening her to Lord Ram and Lord Krishna who finished Ravana and Kans respectively, Singh said Mayawati would defeat Narendra Modi.

Taking an indirect jibe at UP CM Yogi Adityanth, BSP national coordinator Jai Prakash Singh said had the temple been powerful enough, the priests would not have left them to accept chief ministership of the state.

He called Mayawati a living Goddess of masses. Drawing a strange inspiration from Hitler, the party vice-president told the cadre to be as strong-willed and focussed as the dictator was to mend party's fortune in 2019. It may be recalled that BSP had failed to even open an account in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

However, in Monday's conference, each worker of the party was asked to carry out a door-to-door campaign to get at least one new person to join party each day.

"You all have to tell people everything that Behenji has done for the people as UP CM," said Vir Singh. During his speech, party MLC BR Ambedkar compared the current political equation with that of 1993 when the then SP Chief Mulayam SinghYadav and BSO founder president Kanshi Ram had joined hands to throw the BJP out. In a strong message to OBCs, a segment that BJP has been trying to woo of late, the BSP leaders claimed that OBCs were being taken for a ride by the BJP and that they should not repeat their mistake of voting for the BJP again in next election.

However, going back on its social engineering strategy, the party leadership tried to keep the upper castes in good humour as well by saying it was not against Brahmins and other upper castes and had worked for them as well. The next workers' conference in the series would be held in Azamgarh, Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Faizabad, Meerut, Moradabad and Agra.