In a move aimed at further cementing the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party pact in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2019, BSP president Mayawati on Monday spoke to SP president Akhilesh Yadav over the phone regarding the recent CBI raids in a case related to the alleged illegal mining in the state. She dubbed the raids as politically motivated and said that the reports of the investigating agency questioning the SP president were deliberately being spread by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for political and electoral gains.

Mayawati said in a press statement that the day the news of the SP-BSP alliance became public, the BJP dug out a long pending case of alleged illegal mining in UP. The CBI swung into action and conducted raids at several places. Reports of the SP president being questioned also gained momentum. The BSP leader said it was clear that the action and timing were politically motivated, aimed at discrediting and targeting the alliance.

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She further said if such was not the case then the CBI should have acted on the case a long time back. Mayawati hit out at the BJP leaders for their statements on the case asking since when did they become the ‘spokespersons’ of the investigating agency.

Taking a jibe at the Congress, Mayawati said the BJP was acting like the Grand Old Party in its misuse of official machinery and in implicating its adversaries in false cases. The BSP movement had been subjected to this kind of harassment. She reminded Akhilesh Yadav of the trying times she and her party had to face in the Taj Corridor case and assured him that there was no need to fear the machinations of the BJP. The BSP chief advised Akhilesh not to get perturbed and added that it was necessary to foil BJP’s designs. Mayawati said the BJP should be prepared to face the consequences in the forthcoming polls.

Earlier, on Sunday, the SP president said he was ready to be questioned by the CBI in the alleged illegal sand mining case. He said it was not the first time that he would be facing the investigating agency; rather it would be the third time. The first probe was done against him and his wife Dimple during the Congress regime. The second time was when some MPs had levelled allegations against him. In both the cases, he came out clean. He would come out unscathed the third time also if questioned by the CBI.

The SP president sought to know why it took six years for his name to be included in the probe. During this time no notice had been served to him neither had his name figured anywhere. He said it appears to be a desperate move by the BJP leadership to browbeat the alliance. Akhilesh said the people will defeat the BJP in the 2019 elections.

The CBI had on Saturday carried out raids at 14 places in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi following an investigation in a case relating to alleged illegal mining in Hamirpur district.