Mayawati dials Akhilesh amid reports that CBI may quiz him

Lucknow: Ahead of a formal announcement of a pre-poll alliance, BSP chief Mayawati dialled Samajwadi party supremo Akhilesh Yadav and extended her full support to him after reports emerged that he might be quizzed by the CBI in connection with a mining scam.

"Do not be shaken by such gimmicks," she told Yadav, while terming the reports as "political animosity" of the ruling BJP. The BSP chief also alleged that like the Congress, the ruling BJP was "misusing" the government machinery to "trap" its opponents in false cases.

"The CBI raids and later the threat of quizzing by the CBI in a mining scam is nothing but political animosity of the BJP. Such petty politics and political conspiracy are not new for the BJP. The people of the country have understood it and they will teach the BJP a lesson in the Lok Sabha polls," she said in a press release.

It said that Mayawati called up Yadav on Sunday and talked to him over the issue.

"The day news of the SP-BSP top leadership meeting came out, the BJP government used the CBI and raids were conducted in an old mining scam and the news of quizzing Akhilesh Yadav was deliberately spread. Is it not an action to defame the SP-BSP alliance?" Mayawati said. Yadav may face a CBI probe in a case of illegal mining, according to the agency FIR made public Saturday, the day Samajwadi Party and Mayawati-led BSP indicated their intent to join hands in Uttar Pradesh to fight the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. The agency had also carried out searches at 14 locations.

"If this CBI action is not a political conspiracy, then why did BJP leaders issue statements and why did a BJP leader and minister acted as CBI spokesperson," she posed.

Claiming that she was "framed" in the Taj corridor case in 2003 when she did not agree to an alliance for the 2004 general elections, Mayawati said, "But later people took revenge and the BSP got absolute majority in the 2007 Assembly polls."

According to the release, the BSP chief reminded Yadav of these past incidents and asked him not to get shaken while asserting that people will give a befitting reply to the BJP.

The BSP supremo also alleged that the BJP after coming to power in 2014 had been misusing government machinery for political gains and threatening rivals and giving relief "to BJP leaders in criminal cases". Terming the CBI raids "politically motivated", the Samajwadi Party chief had on Sunday also questioned the credibility of the federal probe agency. On a formal announcement of seat-sharing with the BSP, Yadav had said that it is likely to be made within a week. He, however, maintained suspense on accommodating the Congress in the alliance, which also includes Ajit Singh's RLD.

The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have decided to fight the upcoming national elections together and have already worked out a seat sharing arrangement to take on the BJP, which along with its allies won 73 seats from the state in 2014.