MYSURU: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which faced a rout in Uttar Pradesh, maintained that the party lost the elections because of the forces controlling Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Leaders addressing the BSP convention alleged that the BJP has managed to win all elections after 2009 due to this. They charged that exit polls are cooked up in RSS offices and circulated to media houses.
Announcing that the BSP will not bow out even after its worst defeat in UP, State BSP President Krishnamurthy said the party will contest all seats in the Karnataka assembly elections. He said the party will not ally with any other political party, and will teach a lesson to those branding BSP as the B team of BJP.
Krishnamurthy said the ‘bahujan’ are denied their rights as the BJP and Congress have a similar agenda. While the saffron party is playing the Hindutva card, the Congress is playing vote-bank politics and tapping Dalits, minorities and OBCs. He alleged that the media is playing into the hands of the RSS, and people should understand that Japan, which invented the EVM, uses ballot papers. Only seven countries, including India, use EVMs, Krishnamurthy said.
He said such defeats will not force the party to compromise its struggle for socio-economic empowerment of the downtrodden. The BSP fielded 97 Muslims and 13 Brahmins, he added. Karnataka has 28 MPs, including five SCs and two STs, but does not have an MP from the Backward community, he alleged, and hit out at the Congress for denying the chief ministerial post to Mallikarjuna Kharge, G Parameshwara, KH Muniyappa and KH Ranganath.
Successive governments, fearing they would face outrage if reservation is scrapped, have started privatising PSUs and other areas to deny jobs to bahujans. BSP General Secretary Purushottam said they have set a target of winning 50 seats in Karnataka, mobilising the backwards and most backward communities.