Brace up for early Lok Sabha polls, we have to defeat BJP: Mayawati

BAHUJAN Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Sunday alerted her partymen to brace up for the “early Lok Sabha elections”, asking them to forge unity among Dalits, OBCs and converted Dalits to “defeat the communal BJP”. Addressing a rally of party supporters here, Mayawati said: “Don’t remain complacent… expect early Lok Sabha elections. Start preparing for it from this moment only. We have to defeat the BJP.”

Mayawati has been addressing several rallies across the country since her resignation from the Rajya Sabha early this year. “All parties have joined hands from within against our party in a well thought out strategy. These people had also called late Kanshi Ram a CIA agent. They spread all kinds of wrong information about our party. I had to quit the Rajya Sabha because I was not allowed to speak for Dalits, much the same as Babasaheb Ambedkar had to on the issue of Hindu Code Bill.”

Mayawati also reiterated her threat to quit Hinduism, along with crores of Dalits if “atrocities on Dalits did not cease”. “Ambedkar had given 21 long years to Hindu leaders to mend their ways but had to finally quit Hinduism in this very city in 1956 along with lakhs of his followers. I will also quit Hinduism along with crores of people if the present powers don’t mend their ways to end atrocities on Dalits,” she said.

Mayawati also sought to come clean on allegation of corruption against her.

“It is the BJP which is a party of the rich. I have always sent people from grassroots to the Rajya Sabha. If I were to make money, I wouldn’t have quit from chief ministership of Uttar Pradesh within 15 months in 2003,” she said.
She attacked the Congress, saying: “Congress and BJP are similar in all respects. The BJP government in UP nowadays is not even registering FIRs in cases of Dalit atrocities. Across the country, privatisation is being encouraged in industries, where there is no reservation for Dalits. The NDA government has done nothing for Dalit welfare.”