Ali is ours, so is Bajrang Bali, says Mayawati in riposte to Yogi

Mayawati was addressing her second joint rally with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav at Badaun in western UP, which will go to the polls in the third phase on April 23
BSP supremo Mayawati (File | PTI)
BSP supremo Mayawati (File | PTI)

LUCKNOW: Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Saturday launched a blistering attack on the BJP for allegedly making false promises to the people of the country for votes.

During her second joint rally with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav at Badaun in western UP, the BSP chief also responded to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s Ali-Bajrang Bali remark. 

“Ali is ours, so is Bajrang Bali. We want both, especially the latter since he belongs to the Dalit community. Yogi himself said that Bajrang Bali was a forest dweller and a Dalit,” she said.

She called upon the people to ensure that “Yogi’s party did not get either Ali’s vote or Bajrang Bali’s vote.”

Adityanath had earlier stirred a controversy by saying, “If the Congress, SP and BSP have faith in Ali, then we too have faith in Bajrang Bali.”

“It seems that those chanting 'NaMo NaMo' are leaving and those chanting 'Jai Bheem' are coming forward,” Mayawati said, expressing confidence that the gathbandhan in UP would do really well. Saying the Congress was out of power because of its poor policies, she added that the BJP would also lose the elections because of its “jumlebaazi” and “false promises”.

Badaun will go to the polls along with nine other seats in the third phase of the Lok Sabha polls on April 23.

The seat has traditionally been an SP stronghold since 1996. This time the three-cornered fight appears to be evenly poised among sitting MP Dharmendra Yadav of the SP, Saleem Iqbal Sherwani of the Congress and Sanghmitra Maurya of the BJP.

Sanghmitra is the daughter of UP minister and BSP turncoat Swami Prasad Maurya. Sherwani also represented Badaun as the SP candidate for four terms from 1996 to 2004. He then switched over to the Congress in 2009 when the then SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav preferred his nephew Dharmendra over Sherwani.

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