Mayawati cautions BSP leaders against rivals' tactics, asks them to convert support into votes

Lucknow: Days after Lok Sabha bypolls to Azamgarh and Rampur seats, BSP president Mayawati on Thursday cautioned her partymen against tactics of the rival political parties and asked them to work hard for converting its mass support into votes at the right time.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister also justified backing Droupadi Murmu in the presidential poll, saying that the BJP-led NDA's candidate is a woman belonging to the Scheduled Tribes community which is an integral part of the 'Bahujan Samaj'.

Holding a meeting of office bearers and workers of her party, the BSP chief urged them to strengthen the organization at the grassroots level and take forward the work of expanding the base more rapidly and issued guidelines in this regard.

"Though BSP is a party based on strong ideology, due to the rival parties making all out efforts through their narrow casteist tactics, etc., the immense public support of the party is not transferred to votes at the right time.

"Keeping this in mind, the party has to be very careful and work ahead," she was quoted as saying in the meeting by a party release issued here.

Mayawati said that the rival casteist parties are against the BSP and its humanitarian movement.

Apparently referring to the Muslim community, she took a jibe at the Samajwadi Party, saying, "a particular community has to be saved from being misled, especially because of such blatant anti-party tactics".

The SP chief, Akhilesh Yadav, and his party leaders have been accusing the BSP of being hand-in-glove with the BJP during the UP assembly polls and also colluding with the saffron party in Lok Sabha bypolls in Azamgarh and Rampur, the erstwhile bastions of Akhilesh Yadav and Azam Khan.

Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali of the BSP cornered over 2.5 lakh votes in Azamgarh bypoll held on June 23, resulting in defeat of SP's Dharmendra Yadav by Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua' of BJP.

Media reports suggest that BSP's decision of not fielding a candidate in Rampur helped the BJP get lion's share of Dalit votes in the constituency vacated by Azam Khan after his victory in the assembly elections.

The BSP president who recently announced that her party will back the NDA presidential candidate also explained to her partymen about the reasons behind the move.

"The BSP has decided to support Droupadi Murmu, a woman belonging to the Scheduled Tribes society. The decision to support her has been taken keeping in mind the interest of the Bahujan Samaj and not because of any party or individual," Mayawati said.

"The BSP has taken this decision independently and it is neither in favour of the ruling NDA nor against the opposition UPA. It is clear that the UPA never took the BSP into confidence while deciding its common candidate nor consulted it," she said.

The BSP has 10 MPs in Lok Sabha, one member in Rajya Sabha, besides two MLAs in Uttarakhand and one each in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

The meeting also discussed the prevailing conditions in the country and the state which are an outcome of the wrong policies and arrogance of the governments and stressed that this has led to the problems like poverty, inflation, unemployment, while chaos has reached serious levels, the BSP release said.

Terming the government attitude towards these problems as negligent, the BSP president demanded strict action against the anarchic elements and those creating hatred, rather than appeasing them, it said.

She also alleged that the wrong policy of arrests and demolition was continuing only to divert attention.

"The government considers only winning elections as the criteria of welfare state and is satisfied with this," Mayawati said, while asking the Centre, UP and other state governments to rise above party politics and take strict action against those creating communal and casteist violence and hatred.

She also alleged that the 'Agnipath" scheme was brought without serious discussions, as a result the youths were angry, and called for a satisfactory solution for the same.