Uttar Pradesh: BSP chief Mayawati raps Akhilesh Yadav again, tries to drive a wedge in SP

LUCKNOW: BSP chief Mayawati on Thursday made a fresh attempt to drive a wedge in the Samajwadi Party camp by accusing party president Akhilesh Yadav of not taking his own cadre on board while inducting defectors from Opposition parties.
“It seems the SP chief cannot repose faith on his local leaders. He is so desperate to steal the limelight that he’s embracing discarded and uninfluential leaders of other political parties,” she tweeted. Mayawati’s barb at Akhilesh comes a day after the SP boss inducted Amar Pal, former BSP MLA from Sahibabad assembly seat.
Pal had contested from Ghaziabad in 2007 as an Independent and managed to garner only 9.5% votes. His political presence drew the attention of Mayawati, who decided to field him from Sahibabad in 2012, which he won. He, however, soon lost the confidence of the BSP supremo, who denied him a ticket in 2017 assembly elections. Pal switched to Congress and managed to secure 26.50% of votes. With Congress struggling to find a foothold in UP, Pal is learnt to have begun hobnobbing with the SP, ahead of the assembly elections next year.
BSP chief’s fresh attack on Samajwadi Party brass comes two day after few suspended party MLAs — Mohammad Aslam Raini, Sushma Patel, Aslam Ali, Hargovind Bhargav, Mohammad Mujtaba Siddiqui, Hakim Lal Bind and Vandana Singh — met Akhilesh, in what was seen as a realignment of regional political leaders to take on BJP in the 2022 UP assembly elections. Mayawati had suspended the MLAs on charges of opposing party’s official candidate, Ramji Gautam, in 2020 Rajya Sabha elections.
The meeting of suspended BSP MLAs with Akhilesh triggered a sharp riposte from Mayawati, who claimed SP chief’s decision to induct suspended BSP lawmakers would stoke dissent in his ranks and many are “waiting” to walk into BSP fold.
BSP sources said, her statement signalled a deft strategy of driving a fissure in the Samajwadi Party, which put up a formidable challenge to BJP in the recently concluded rural local bodies’ polls.