Next 6 months, more rallies outside UP: Mayawati out to protect BSP’s ‘national party’ tag

BSP Chief Mayawati (File Photo)

With the BSP’s “national party” status under threat, its chief Mayawati will lead as many as nine rallies outside Uttar Pradesh in the next few months. It will also be an attempt to project herself as a prominent opposition face against the ruling BJP.

Between November 24 and March 4, Mayawati is expected to lead rallies in Bhopal, Bangalore, Jaipur, Nagpur, Patna, Delhi, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Compared to this, Mayawati will likely lead six rallies in UP by May next year.

She has already begun her campaign with a rally in Meerut on September 18.

A party leader, who did not want to be named, said said the rallies are aimed at raising the morale of party supporters and also “rise in opposition to the BJP, which seems to be thinking there is no opposition to it”. Rajya Sabha MP Veer Singh, however, said the BSP’s campaign is focused on increasing its base in the states outside UP and claimed that the party is getting good response.

In the last few years, the BSP has lost its base in states outside UP and has been significantly reduced in strength in UP. The party will have to put up good performances in states other than UP to save its national party status, the fate of which will be decided after next Lok Sabha elections.

In a statement issued Friday, Mayawati said BJP governments are trying to “control public anger” against its policies by “misusing law and slapping cases” against those who make remarks on the PM or CM. She said the case against actor Prakash Raj and “the arrest of a Dalit youth from Shamli” shows the BJP government has “no constraints on it”.

She also alleged that the BJP government at Centre has turned Doordarshan and All India Radio into “His Modi Voice” and “almost finished their value”, while it is trying to “end the freedom of private media channels through indirect control”. Mayawati said the judiciary needs to intervene to “put checks on the anarchist behaviour of the government”.