Mayawati sounds BSP’s poll bugle in Haryana, calls Rahul Gandhi ‘chameleon’ over reservation remark

Mayawati was speaking at ‘Samman Diwas’, an event marking the birth anniversary of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) founder and former deputy prime minister Chaudhary Devi Lal, in the Uchana Kalan Assembly constituency in the Jind district. The BSP is contesting the Haryana Assembly elections, scheduled for October 5, in alliance with the INLD. The BSP is contesting 37 of the 90 Assembly seats in the state.

Mayawati said the constitutional rights of reservation for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) were given by Dr B R Ambedkar, not anybody else.

“Several political parties play casteist politics here. The Congress and its allies earlier and recently the BJP and other political parties have still been unable to fulfil the actual reservation benefits that backward classes must have. However, in Uttar Pradesh, when I formed the government, I cleared the backlog of reserved category government jobs by running a special campaign. Why don’t they (BJP, Congress, or other political parties) do the same? Because they know that people will forget it and these parties will eventually give these government jobs meant for reserved categories to general category,” Mayawati said.

“The same situation is emerging in Haryana. The majority of government jobs and government functioning are being outsourced to private corporations, which is why people are deprived of reservation benefits. Dalits and Adivasis, besides other backward classes, are also facing the brunt of this,” added Mayawati.

She said the BSP’s relentless efforts were the reason that backward classes received reservations under the Mandal Commission during V P Singh’s government tenure. She also said B R Ambedkar was also honoured with the Bharat Ratna during VP Singh’s tenure, an honour he should have received earlier. She added that the delay in honoring Ambedkar was the Congress’ responsibility.

During the event, INLD’s senior leader and Ellenabad nominee Abhay Chautala criticised the Congress and the BJP. He asked people to remember that he resigned as an MLA in support of the farmers’ protest against three farm laws and urged them to continue supporting him on polling day. Chautala’s resignation necessitated a by-election in Ellenabad. He contested again and won. He is contesting from the same Assembly constituency this time.

The 90-member Haryana Assembly has no BSP MLAs, and Abhay Chautala is the only INLD MLA.

What did Rahul Gandhi say about reservation?

Interacting with the students and faculty members of Georgetown University in Washington, DC, Gandhi said India was not a fair place at the moment and the Congress would “think of ending reservation when India is a fair place”.

After a backlash, the Leader of the Opposition issued a clarification saying that he was not against reservation and that he would increase it beyond 50 per cent if the Congress came to power.