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BJP 'hurt' by Mayawati attacks against Centre

By J.P. Shukla

LUCKNOW July 13. The BJP is "hurt" by the continuing attacks of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, against the Central Government holding its defective policies responsible for the lack of employment-generating projects in the State. Ms. Mayawati, in her remarks, had called upon the Bahujan Samaj Party workers to capture power at the Centre and bring an end to the Government of "Manuwadi" forces saying "this alone could ameliorate their problems".

The BJP tried to play down her comments saying they were only meant to give a "politically encouraging message to the BSP workers".

Talking to presspersons here today, the BJP in-charge of Uttar Pradesh affairs, Kalraj Mishra, gave details of the budgetary allocations to various Central schemes meant to remove unemployment in the State's rural areas. He insisted that this was not a reply to Ms. Mayawati's comments.

Leaders of various political parties, including the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and Ms. Mayawati had accused the Centre of doing "little to generate employment in rural areas", he said. The facts, however, were different, Mr. Mishra said. The Centre had done a "tremendous job" to generate employment through schemes such as the Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana, the Swarana Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Rozgar Yojana and the Rashtriya Rajmarg Vikas Yojana, he said. Large sums of money had been allocated for these schemes and all the States had benefited, he claimed. The Centre's critics must first examine what it had really done through its schemes before making allegations, the BJP leader said.

Mr. Mishra was hard put to explain why Ms. Mayawati had chosen to reiterate her remarks, despite the State BJP leaders' efforts to dissuade her from embarrassing the most important partner of her Government. During private conversations with BJP leaders Ms. Mayawati had denied having ever attacked the Centre, he said. Her explanation was that she had only "emphasised" that successive "Manuwadi" Governments of the Congress had done nothing to generate employment facilities for the weaker sections during their tenure.

The State BJP president, Vinay Katiyar, had earlier said that Ms. Mayawati should be "cautious" while commenting against the BJP, on whose support she was running her Government.

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