There was conspiracy to get me eliminated in Saharanpur: Mayawati; BJP rubbishes charge

Azamgarh/Lucknow (UP): Targeting the BJP, BSP chief Mayawati alleged on Tuesday that there was a conspiracy to eliminate her during her visit to the Shabbirpur village in Saharanpur district, which saw caste clashes earlier this year, a charge rubbished by the ruling party.

Addressing a rally here, Mayawati claimed that according to reports she had received, the conspiracy behind the caste clashes in Saharanpur district was to get her eliminated.

The plan was that when Dalits will be harassed in large numbers, their leader will go there to wipe their tears, she said. "BJP people thought that when I will go to Shabbirpur and speak in favour of the Dalit 'samaj' which will arouse passions and there will be a bloodbath, during which along with the Dalits, their leaders will also be eliminated," the former chief minister alleged.

Mayawati said that since she was not allowed to speak on this matter in Parliament, she resigned from the membership of Rajya Sabha.

Reacting to the BSP chief's statement, UP BJP spokesman Rakesh Tripathi in Lucknow said, "Mayawati is making such statements as she is left with no issue to deliberate upon.

She is feeling frustrated. Most of the founder members of BSP have already left the party, and she is feeling isolated and lonely".

Tripathi claimed that Mayawati's "casteist politics" had badly failed and she was worried that the BJP government will start investigations into the cases of alleged corruption committed by her.

He said that it was a BJP MLA, Brahmadutt Dwivedi, who had saved her life but she was singing a different tune on Tuesday. In her speech in Azamgarh, the Lok Sabha constituency of Samajwadi Party veteran Mulayam Singh Yadav, it was the BJP that was Mayawati's prime target.

The BSP chief said that she would convert to Buddhism along with her supporters if the BJP did not change its attitude towards the backward sections. She also claimed that the atmosphere in the country was worse than the situation during the Emergency days.

She also accused the BJP of weakening constitutional institutions and the media to serve its political motives.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister alleged that the saffron party was misusing government machinery and agencies like the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax to make the country free of Opposition by creating dissension in other parties.

Mayawati also took a dig at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath saying that he will look after the development of the state when he gets time from "puja paath" (worship) in temples.

"Despite being a representative from the backward Purvanchal area, he has not been able to give attention to its development...He can focus on it only when he gets time from his puja paath in temples. Sometimes he is in his Gorakhnath temple or in Ayodhya or Chitrakoot. Leave alone Purvanchal, the entire state cannot develop under such circumstances," she said. She claimed that the BJP leaders can go for prayers to temples in Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi to hide their shortcomings but the people would not be misled by their "religion card".

The previous Samajwadi Party government was not good, but the present government is worse and is even lagging behind them, she said.

She alleged that an atmosphere of fear and terror had been created everywhere in the name of religion and culture.

Muslims and minorities are finding it difficult to sustain, so much so, that they have stopped keeping cows out of fear of cow vigilantes and even Hindus are desisting from it, she added.