LUCKNOW: With the UP Assembly election inching closer, the colour blue is buzzing as the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are engaging in verbal spats over it.
It may be recalled that Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had launched the blue uniform for the Samajwadi Party’s student wing (SP Chhatra Sabha) recently.
Moreover, three days before the launch of the uniform, Akhilesh Yadav had arrived wearing a blue scarf around his neck during a press conference.
The move laid the path to a common belief that SP was seeking to woo Dalit voters through it. Meanwhile, BSP supremo Mayawati hit out at Akhilesh Yadav.
Without naming him, she said on Friday that adopting the BSP’s blue colour, wearing a blue scarf around the neck, dressing in blue clothes or putting blue fabric on a stage would not change a party’s casteist mindset.
Taking to social media platform X, Mayawati wrote: "If you genuinely care about the poor, Dalits, tribals, backward classes and other neglected sections, then all opposition parties, including the SP and Congress, must first cleanse their hearts and minds. Merely adopting the colour blue does not make anyone an Ambedkarite."
On the purported offer to Mayawati’s nephew Akash Anand to join the Congress, Mayawati said: "Congress is like a sinking ship. Why would anyone put their political future in darkness by joining it?"
After Akash was expelled from the BSP, Uttar Pradesh Congress in-charge Rajendra Pal Gautam had said that the doors of the Congress were open to Akash and that he would receive due respect.
At a press conference in Lucknow on Thursday, when asked whether Akash Anand could join the SP, Akhilesh Yadav said: "You are a journalist; you tell him to come, and we will take him."
Similarly, BJP ally Nishad Party president Sanjay Nishad said, "Akash Anand should join us. He will be given full respect and a major responsibility. He could even be made national president. The dream of Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram remains incomplete, and we can all work together to fulfil it."
Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai had said, "Akash Anand was speaking about his people, which Mayawati did not like."
Congress leaders also believe that decisions taken by the party have played a major role in damaging Akash Anand’s political career.
Meanwhile, hitting out at the political rivals, Mayawati said: "Opposition parties have continuously changed their colours on issues concerning backward classes and Dalits. These parties say one thing and do exactly the opposite."
Questioning the Samajwadi Party’s PDA slogan, referring to backward classes, Dalits and minorities, she said the BSP was the only party working for the cause of the Bahujan Samaj.
She described the BSP as the only well-wisher of Bahujan Samaj and the only Ambedkarite party.
Mayawati added that those who were expelled from the BSP had switched parties several times.
“This is a reflection of their selfish and opportunistic politics. Such people cannot do good for any party," posted the BSP chief.
She said a few expelled leaders, while acting at the behest of other parties, even go on to form small parties and organisations.
Mayawati said: "SP and Congress cannot even contest elections without alliances. At the same time, when a major party forms the government, they cannot stay away from joining it."
Referring to Dr BR Ambedkar, Mayawati said that during his lifetime, he had warned members of the Bahujan Samaj to maintain distance from the Congress.
She said it was important for the people associated with the BSP and its movement to understand those lines in the current political circumstances.