Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, on Friday, hit out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, claiming that had the saffron party not "wasted time" in "Sangh appeasement" by indulging in issues such as conversion, jihad and a survey of madrasas, the delay in holding the civic polls in Uttar Pradesh could have been avoided.
Addressing a meeting of the BSP office-bearers of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand at the party headquarters here, Mayawati also slammed the Congress, alleging that both the grand old party and the BJP were against reservation.
"If the intention and policy of the BJP were not to delay the Uttar Pradesh local bodies’ election and hold it in a legal manner on time, instead of wasting time in Sangh appeasement by indulging in issues like conversion, hate, jihad and madrasa survey, it would have focused on Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation in the civic polls," she was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the BSP.
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court quashed the Uttar Pradesh government's draft notification on the urban local bodies’ polls on Tuesday and ordered it to hold the elections without any reservation for the OBCs.
"Both the Congress and the BJP are anti-reservation parties. Together, they have made the constitutional right of reservation for the uplift of SCs (Scheduled Castes) and STs (Scheduled Tribes) almost inactive and ineffective and now, the same bad, casteist, hostile attitude is being shown in the reservation for OBCs as well.
"Because of their casteist intentions, thousands of posts reserved for them (SCs, STs and OBCs) in government departments have been lying vacant for years. Even the SP's (Samajwadi Party) thinking, policy and intentions are not right on the issue," Mayawati said.
The BSP chief also targeted the UP government over recent roadshows in foreign countries to attract investment. She termed the above move of the Yogi Adityanath government as wastage of public money.
The former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh also instructed BSP leaders to travel to villages to raise awareness of the party's programmes from the start of the new year in view of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
In the meeting, party leaders and others also discussed programmes to be organised by the party across the state on Mayawati's birthday. After Mayawati became chief minister in 2007, her birthday is celebrated in a grand manner. On January 15, 2009 (her birthday), display of opulence was quite palpable as the city was draped in blue, a massive dais was set up on the ground near the chief minister’s residence and BSP supporters, majority of them being Dalits, were brought from all over UP as well as neighbouring states to participate in the programme.
Over the years the BSP MPs, MLAs and workers have been donating funds in the party coffer on Mayawati's birthday. The fund-raising drive is termed as 'arthik sahyog' (economic cooperation) by the BSP. After losing power in the 2012 assembly election, the BSP has been celebrating Mayawati’s birthday as 'Jankalyankari Diwas'.
"The party leaders assist the needy, poor and handicapped. They also visit Dalit hamlets and hospitals and distribute fruit and blankets among the poor. After COVID-19 pandemic, the BSP celebrated Mayawati's birthday in simple manner in 2020 and 2021. In 2022 too, the birthday celebrations were curtailed due to the enforcement of the model code of conduct for the 2022 assembly election in UP.
