Mayawati says BSP MLAs joining SP an ‘illusion’, calls ex-ally ‘anti-Dalit’

“Samajwadi Party, which specialises in the narrow politics of loathsome manipulation, malice and casteism, wants to propagate with the help of media that some BSP MLAs are breaking away to join SP, but it is a gross illusion,” she said in her statement in Hindi.

On Tuesday, at least five MLAs suspended by the BSP last year met Akhilesh, triggering speculation that they may join his party.

Mayawati added that these MLAs were already suspended from the BSP for ensuring the defeat of a “Dalit son” during the Rajya Sabha elections “by conniving with an industrialist”.

“Had the SP been even a bit honest towards these suspended MLAs, it would have not kept them in lurch. The SP knows that if these MLAs are taken into its party fold, then there will be a revolt in SP, whose leaders are eager to join the BSP,” she added.

The BSP chief alleged that the SP was “Dalit-virodhi” (anti-Dalit) and hence when it was power, it had stopped the public welfare work started by BSP-led government in the state. She cited an example of how the name of Bhadohi district, which was named after Sant Ravidas Nagar was changed by the SP-led government in the state and termed it as “most condemnable”.

She alleged that the meeting with the suspended MLAs was the SP’s “new drama” that was being enacted before the upcoming Zila Panchayat and Block pramukh elections in the state.

She also claimed that the BSP has evolved itself in Uttar Pradesh as the party of “people’s aspiration” and will continue to work in that direction.

Last year, a section of party BSP MLAs had met Akhilesh after alleging that their signature as proposers to BSP candidate Ramji Gautam for the Rajya Sabha elections were forged. However, later Gautam was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha as the nomination papers of the eleventh candidate, Prakash Bajaj, were cancelled during technical scrutiny.

On Tuesday, Mungra Badshahpur (Jaunpur district) MLA Sushma Patel had told The Indian Express that she and four other legislators – Aslam Raini (Bhinga, Shravasti), Hakim Lal Bind (Handia, Prayagraj), Mohammad Mujtaba Siddiqui (Pratappur, Prayagraj) and Hargovind Bhargava (Sidhauli, Sitapur) — met Akhilesh to “discuss their future”.