LUCKNOW: Choosing the birth anniversary day of her ideologue Dr BR Ambedkar, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati made a major announcement of according statehood to western UP and also establishing a bench of Allahabad High Court in the region if voted to power at centre.
While addressing her a poll rally in Muzaffarnagar, the BSP chief introduced the long-pending ‘Harit Pradesh’ issue to the poll arena yet again. Significantly, it was Dr BR Ambedkar who had proposed the division of UP into three separate states—Western, Central and Eastern—for the better governance.
Even Union Minister and BJP candidate from Muzaffarnagar had also been a votary of statehood to western UP in his personal capacity. In Muzaffarnagar, the BSP chief launched a broadside on archrival Samajwadi Party (SP) saying that the brotherhood and amity was buried in western UP during the rule of SP whereas the BSP rule never witnessed a communal flareup in western UP.
She slammed both Congress and the BJP for having policies favoring the capitalists and big corporate houses. “These parties don’t have Dalit, tribals and deprived in their agenda of development,” she said.
Notably, the BSP is going it alone in the ensuing elections keeping both the ruling and the opposition blocs at equal distance. In Muzaffarnagar, she has fielded Dara Singh Prajapati, against BJP’s Sanjeev Balyan who is seeking the third term from the constituency and SP’s Harendra Mallik, a former MP and a prominent Jat leader.
Earlier, commencing her party’s campaign from Saharanpur, the parliamentary constituency number 1, which the BSP had won in 2019, Mayawati claimed that it would not be easy for the ruling BJP to return to power because of the contradiction in their words and deeds. She accused the BJP of lying to the public and working in the interest of the powerful.
“For the past few years, the BJP and its allies have been in power at the Centre and in most of the states. Owing to the casteist, capitalist, narrow and vindictive policies and governance along with the contradictions in their words and actions, apparently, it would not be easy for them to return to power at the Centre, provided these elections are free and fair.”
Mayawati said people were not going to fall anymore for the “rhetoric” served by the political parties ahead of the polls, She also accused the ruling BJP of “politicizing” the probe agencies and using them to intimidate the political rivals. Mayawati said contesting alone, she had given tickets to “all sections of the society” ensuring their equal representation.
She also issued a statement on the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar, accusing the mainstream parties of giving an “ostensible” respect to him but ignoring his followers. “For narrow electoral interests, the ostensible respect given to Baba Saheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, and ignoring his followers, exemplifies the proverb ‘mooh mein ram, bagal mein chhuri’. This is an old tradition, and it is still continuing, and it is necessary to remain cautious of this illusion.”
Speaking about the Congress, she said, the party’s ‘gharibi hatao’ slogan in the 80s remained only a slogan because of lack of intent. “And now, the same condition prevails under the BJP government as the sky-rocketing inflation, poverty, unemployment and backwardness is worsening the lives of the people,” she said.
