Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Wednesday took a potshot at both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its biggest challenger in the upcoming Lok Sabha election calling them “the birds of the same feather”. Mayawati endorsed the BJP’s criticism of the minimum income guarantee poll promise made by Congress president Rahul Gandhi but in the same vein, she targeted the ruling party asking whether “bluff” is its sole domain.

Mayawati wrote on Twitter, “Ruling BJP calling Congress slogan of Garibi Hatao 2.0 as bluff is true. But is poll bluff & reneging of poll promises the sole domain of the BJP? In fact BJP & Congress party are both birds of the same feather in betraying the interests of the poor, labourers, farmers & others.”

This come in the wake of Gandhi’s poll promise that if the Congress is voted to power, it will implement a minimum income guarantee scheme. Named as NYAY (standing for Nyuntam Aay Yojana) meaning justice, the income guarantee scheme of the Congress promises to pay Rs 6,000 to poorest 20 per cent families.

The BJP has dismissed the minimum income guarantee poll promise of Gandhi. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley called it a “bluff announcement” in a blog. Mayawati apparently referred to Jaitley’s criticism of the Congress’s poll promise while targeting both the Congress and the BJP.

Mayawati had also targeted the two parties on Tuesday blaming them for wide-scale poverty and unemployment.

“The curse of poverty and unemployment prevalent all around in the country is the result of wrong policies of the Congress and BJP governments. This problem can be resolved only by giving work to each hand as per the BSP policy and firm resolve which was given shape by extending employment to lakhs among the sarv samaj by my governments in UP,” tweeted Mayawati.

The BSP, in alliance with the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal, is engaged in a stiff electoral battle in Uttar Pradesh. The BSP and the SP announced their electoral alliance in January leaving out the Congress from their coalition against the BJP.

Mayawati’s strong opposition to the Congress is believed to be the reason why the Congress was not given a space in the grand-alliance. However, Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav announced not to field any candidates at Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seats represented respectively by Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

The Congress later announced to contest the Lok Sabha election alone in Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 members to the lower house of Parliament. Responding to the BSP-SP’s goodwill gesture of leaving out two seats, the Congress decided not to field candidates at seven Lok Sabha seats, where key leaders of the grand-alliance are in the fray against the BJP, in Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh votes in all seven phases of the Lok Sabha election between April 11 and May 19. The votes will be counted on May 23. The BJP-led alliance had won 73 of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2014 Lok Sabha election. The party, however, suffered defeats in last year’s Lok Sabha bypolls when the BSP and SP joined hands against it.

First Published: Mar 27, 2019 10:40 IST