Beware of SP: Mayawati tells Dalits, OBCs, Muslims

BSP supremo Mayawati on Wednesday said people from Dalit, OBC and Muslim communities should beware of the Samajwadi Party for it does the politics of caste and "nonsensical" issues instead of development and public interest.

Her statement came two days after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav claimed that the 'Bahujan Samaj' is uniting with his party in a big way to safeguard its rights, democracy and the Constitution drafted by B R Ambedkar.

Mentioning the SP-BSP alliance formed by party founder Kanshi Ram, Mayawati alleged that even after becoming the chief minister, SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's intentions were not pure.

Also Read | Akhilesh sets eyes on Mayawati's 'Dalit' vote bank through Kanshiram

Founded in 1984, BSP claims to represent the 'Bahujans', referring to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC), along with religious minorities.

"In the presence of the SP chief, the news of a case against a SP leader involved in the Ramcharitmanas controversy over the slogan 'Mile Mulayam-Kanshi Ram, Hawa Ho Gaye Jai Shri Ram' is in headlines today," she said in a tweet in Hindi.

"In fact, it has been the nature of SP to do politics of hate on caste lines and nonsensical (anargal) issues instead of development and public interest of Uttar Pradesh," she added.

During an event in Raebareli on Monday, SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya raised the 90s slogan countering the Ram temple movement, leading to an FIR against him. Party president Yadav was also present at the programme, where he unveiled the statue of Kanshi Ram.

"And this fact has been coming in front of the people regularly that in 1993 Honourable Kanshi Ram ji had formed the SP-BSP alliance with a missionary spirit, but despite Mulayam Singh Yadav becoming the CM under the alliance, his intentions were not pure and were that to defame BSP and continue Dalit oppression," Mayawati said.

"In the same sequence, the slogans related to Ayodhya, Shri Ram Mandir and the upper caste society etc, which were propagated during that time, were mischievous and well-planned conspiracy of the SP to defame the BSP," she continued.

"Therefore, there is a dire need for Dalits, OBCs and the Muslim community to beware of such activities of the SP," the former chief minister added.

Alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was taking away the rights and reservation of Dalits and OBCs and humiliating them, Yadav in his Monday address said Bahujan Samaj is confident that the Samajwadi Party (SP) will unite all sections and give a crushing defeat to the saffron party.

"We are the people who follow the path shown by Bhimrao Ambedkar and Manyavar Kanshi Ram. We are not the ones who are out to make a dent in the Bahujan Samaj, but are those who bind them," he had added.

While Mayawati had charged that the SP was trying to politically use the name of Kanshi Ram even though it has a long history of being ungrateful to him as well as Ambedkar, SP termed BSP as the B-team of the BJP.