Days after calling off the alliance with Samajwadi Party, BSP supremo Mayawati launched a scathing attack against SP chief Akhilesh Yadav by calling him ‘anti-Muslim.
Mayawati said Akhilesh had asked her to not give tickets to Muslims as it would result in religious polarization.
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“But I did not listen to him. When Akhilesh Yadav was the Chief Minister, injustice was done to non-Yadav and Dalits and that is why they did not give votes to the SP. The SP had protested against the promotion of the Dalits also,” she said at a closed-door party meeting.
Incidentally, three of the five MPs elected on an SP ticket are Muslims, namely, Mohd Azam Khan, Shafiqur-rehman Barq and ST Hasan.
Mayawati further claimed that she did not receive any call from Akhilesh Yadav after the “mahagathbandhan” lost the Lok Sabha polls and it was her who, although being a senior, called him to express sadness over the loss.
She further said that Akhilesh Yadav called BSP leader Satish Chandra Misra after the party announced its decision to go solo in the Assembly by-elections but did not speak with her.
The BSP chief also attacked the Yadav family and accused Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav of “working hand in glove with the BJP” to frame her in the Rs. 17-crore Taj corridor case.
Her fresh comments indicate that the two parties may not come together for an alliance in future.
Earlier this month, Mayawati said that her party will contest the bypolls on all 11 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh alone.
Addressing a meeting of party leaders from Uttar Pradesh in Delhi, Mayawati, the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, reportedly said that BSP had not benefited from the alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP in the Lok Sabha elections.
A few days, she clarified that she was just taking a break from her partnership with the Samajwadi Party and that it was “not permanent”. She further said the relationship was not just for politics and will continue forever.
BSP contested the Lok Sabha elections in an alliance with SP and RLD. The alliance won a total of 15 seats, with the BSP winning 10 of the 38 it contested and SP winning five of the 37 it contested. Even Akhilesh Yadav’s wife, Dimple Yadav, lost the Yadav bastion of Kannauj.
RLD failed to win any of the three seats it contested.
Following Mayawati’s decision, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said that his party will also contest alone on all 11 seats where byelections will be held.