On February 15, BSP supremo Mayawati held a public meeting in UP on the occasion of Ravidas Jayanti. She paid glowing tributes to Saint Ravidas and appealed to the voters of UP to extend their support in the ongoing Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. She said that the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is the only well-wisher of the people.
The BSP chief said that the mystic poet and reformer wanted a government that gave everyone ‘roti, kapda, makan,’ but other parties don’t take that message seriously. Every year they try to gain political mileage on his birth anniversary by visiting his birthplace, but they never take the message seriously.
She claimed that her party has always tried to walk the path shown by Saint Ravidas, as evident by the steps that the previous BSP government have taken as well as the many historical projects that were started for people in the poet-reformer’s name.
Mayawati said, “In order to realise the dreams of Sant Ravidas, it is very important to form the government of the BSP again. This will be your true tribute to him in this election, instead of giving your vote to other political parties, including the Congress, the BJP and the SP, you have to give it to your only well-wisher– BSP”.
She assured the voters of UP that all their problems would be resolved once BSP came to power with a full majority. “The BSP is contesting all the Assembly seats alone to form a government with full majority, like in 2007, to free the state from the BJP’s casteist, narrow and dictatorial rule.”
She further added that false cases registered against people staging protests would be removed, those who disturb law and order would be sent to jail, and old pension scheme for government employees would be executed.
Attacking her political opponents, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said like the Samajwadi Party (SP), the mindset of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government towards Dalits and other backward classes and their saints and gurus is evident and therefore, along with the SP, the saffron party too must also be stopped from coming to power in the state.
The policies and style of functioning of the BJP appear to be casteist, capitalist, and following the “narrow agenda” of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),” she said.
Mayawati also hit out at the Congress, which ruled the state and the country for the longest period of time since independence, saying it was because of the wrong policies of the grand old party that it is now out of power at the Centre as well as in many states, including Uttar Pradesh.
The BSP chief accused the Congress of being strongly casteist and harbouring an anti-Dalit, anti-tribal, and anti-Other Backward Classes (OBCs) mindset from the very beginning and said the leaders of the party have been enacting all kinds of drama for the votes of these sections now.
She alleged that goons and rioters dominated the proceedings when the SP was in power in Uttar Pradesh.
“Crime in the state has also increased a lot under the present BJP government. Dalits, minorities and women are feeling unsafe,” Mayawati said, referring to the Unnao incident and accusing the media of suppressing the truth.
She accused the BJP government of adopting a biased attitude towards minorities and alleged that the benefits of reservation are not reaching Dalits and the backward communities as most of the projects are being implemented through the private sector.
Mayawati alleged that there was large-scale migration during the governments led by other parties while claiming that those who had migrated from the state returned during the governments led by her.
