P. Parameshwar, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate for Udupi-Chikkamagaluru parliamentary seat, said on Saturday that both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which ruled at the Centre for the last 70 years, had failed to provide basic facilities for the citizens.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Parameshwar said that the country still faced poverty, unemployment, casteism, exploitation of women, and other issues. Both the Congress and BJP had also failed to tackle communalism.

There was a massive agrarian crisis in rural areas and the prices of essential commodities had gone up. Instead of solving these problems, the Congress and the BJP spent their time attacking each other, he sad.

Only the president of BSP, Mayawati, was capable of giving a stable government and taking the country on the road to prosperity. Ms. Mayawati, who became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh four times, was successful in providing basic facilities to the people, he said.

As Chief Minister, she had provided a fear-free and corruption-free administration in Uttar Pradesh. She distributed land to the landless and had provided jobs to the unemployed youth in Uttar Pradesh, he said. “If elected as MP for Udupi-Chikkamagaluru, I will sincerely work to solve the problems in the constituency,” he said.

To a query, Mr. Parameshwar said that Ms. Mayawati would win about 60 seats in the country and go on to become the Prime Minister.

To another query, he said that the BSP was being strengthened at the booth-level in Udupi-Chikkamagaluru.