NEW DELHI: With the Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiling Bhim App for digital payments, the BJP-BSP war of words has intensified on owning up to the Dalit legacy of Bhim Rao Ambedkar. While the BJP is seeking to make inroads into the Dalit vote base, the BSP has strongly reacted to the saffron outfit reaching out to her core constituency by claiming that naming the digital transaction App as Bhim shows “cheap” mindset of the ruling party at the Centre.
“Prime Minister for the cheap publicity has named the Bharat Interface for Money as Bhim after B R Ambedkar. He has sought to show himself as an admirer of Ambedkar, which is in contrast to the actions of his government and the party,” BSP chief Mayawati said on Saturday in a media statement. She reminded the Prime Minister and the BJP of the suicide by Hyderabad scholar Rohith Vemula and expelled party leader from Uttar Pradesh Dayashankar Singh who had allegedly publicly abused her.
However, the BJP has maintained that the Dalits had voted in a large number to the party in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. “The BSP supremo should not forget that she failed to win even one seat in the 2014 polls. Dalits want development and they voted for Modi in 2014,” quipped Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The BSP supremo in her media statement also claimed that the BJP by naming the digital transaction App Bhim is attempting to “misguide” the Dalits as the party had done in the 2014 polls with the slogan of “Har Har Modi, Ghar Ghar Modi”.
With the UP polls approaching the BJP and BSP war of words is likely to further intensify, as the saffron outfit is keen to broad base its support base to wrest power in Lucknow.