Mayawati hits out at bulldozer action: ‘A fierce anti-people step’

Taking stock of the organisational preparations from visiting leaders, Mayawati reiterated the BSP’s stance of staying away from the BJP-led NDA as well as the opposition parties’ INDIA bloc. “During the discussion, she once again made it clear that Bahujan Samaj Pary (BSP) has to work by strengthening itself while maintaining complete distance from the ruling NDA and the opposition INDIA bloc,” a statement issued here said.

Cautioning party leaders to be alert against fake news, continuous “propaganda” and political conspiracies by anti-BSP elements, the former UP chief minister told BSP leaders to work to strengthen the party while maintaining distance from both alliances— the NDA and the INDIA bloc.

“She (Mayawati) is referring fake news to the reports terming BSP a B-team of a particular party and speculations doing rounds about the party’s pre-poll alliance,” said a BSP leader present at the meeting.

Mayawati, earlier too, had ruled out joining any of the two alliances and announced to go solo in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections as well as Assembly elections in four states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.

In the meeting, Mayawati took note of BJP government’s “new election strategy”. The BSP chief Sunday said problems like price rise, extreme poverty, unemployment, decline in income, poor amenities like education, healthcare, houses, crime control and law and order were on the people’s minds. But it is unclear if these problems will become serious election issues, she said.

“This is because when it comes to issues of public interest and public welfare, the attitude of the BJP and Congress is almost the same, and it is anti-people,” Mayawati said. The BSP chief also said that efforts are being made to make the provision of reservation to the SC, ST and OBCs ineffective.

Reservation should not be linked to removing unemployment or some cosmetic changes, she said.