Lucknow. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Sunday took a dig at the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) over the ‘Samvidhan Samman Sammelan’ organized in Prayagraj, calling them parties with “double thinking” and asked people to be “alert about their conduct and character”. She also said that her party will not form any alliance with parties like SP and Congress in any election.
Mayawati wrote on the social media platform ‘X’, “The followers of Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar will never forgive the Congress party which organized the Constitution Samman Samaroh in Prayagraj yesterday (Saturday). Congress did not honor Baba Saheb, the main architect of the Constitution, with the title of Bharat Ratna during his lifetime and even after his death.” Mayawati said, “Even after the death of Honorable Shri Kanshiram, who gave impetus to Baba Saheb’s campaign, this Congress did not declare even a single day of national mourning in his honor while its government was in power at the Center, nor did the then SP government declare state mourning. Be cautious of such double-faced thinking, behavior, character of these people.”
The former Chief Minister raised questions in the caste census case and said, “Why did the Congress not conduct the national caste census in its government before the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) came to power at the Centre, whereas now it is talking about it, answer? BSP has always been in favour of it, because it is very important in the interest of the weaker sections.” Emphasising the demand for a nationwide caste census, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said on Saturday that 90 per cent of the people of the country are outside the system and steps need to be taken in their interest. The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha had said, “For the Congress, caste census is the basis of policy making.” Mayawati said, “Not only this, Congress, SP and BJP etc. have maintained silence in protest against the ongoing conspiracy to make the reservation given to SC/ST (Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes) ineffective and end it through classification and ‘creamy layer’ under the Constitution. Is this their love for Dalits, be careful.”
The BSP chief said, “Will it be appropriate in the interest of SC, ST and OBC (Other Backward Classes) to form an alliance with these anti-reservation parties like SP and Congress etc. in any election now? This will not happen at all.” Samajwadi Party (SP) president and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had expressed displeasure over the “objectionable comments” of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA against Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati and said that a defamation case should be filed against the MLA for this statement made in public. BSP chief Mayawati had expressed gratitude to Akhilesh Yadav on this matter.
SP and BSP are rivals of each other. However, before the 1993 assembly elections, there was an agreement between the two parties in the assembly elections, then this initiative was taken by BSP founder Kanshiram and SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav. In June 1995, this agreement was broken after violent clashes between SP and BSP workers in the government guest house in Lucknow. Then BSP accused Mayawati of being attacked by SP workers and leaders. Then in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, there was an agreement between SP and BSP in which BSP won 10 seats and SP won five seats out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, but this agreement was broken in 2019 after the election results came and since then the leaders of both the parties have often been targeting each other.