Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of trying to create discord between her party and the Samajwadi Party (SP) as he feared the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was lagging in the first four phases of polling in Uttar Pradesh.
Ms. Mayawati said the Modi government had made every attempt to try and “break and hurt” the SP-BSP alliance, including the “misuse” of official machinery as part of a conspiracy.
She said the alliance was “not just for the present but also for the future” and would also go on to overthrow the narrow-minded, communal, casteist and arrogant government in U.P. in 2022.
Ms. Mayawati pitched the unity among the alliance partners, and said Mr. Modi “forgets that our alliance was made in public interest and national interest to overthrow the anti-people BJP government, and all three parties in the gathbandhan (alliance) have made all kinds of sacrifices for it and will do so in future as well”.
The BSP chief’s attack on the PM came a day after he suggested at a rally in Pratapgarh that the SP and the Congress were playing behind the back of the BSP with a tacit understanding.
“It is clear that in the name of the alliance, the SP took advantage of behen (sister) Mayawati. They applied cunning and kept her in the dark, told her she would be made PM. But now behenji (respected sister) has understood that behind her back, SP and Congress have played a big game together,” Mr. Modi had said.
The PM’s words appear to be an attempt to deter BSP supporters from transferring their votes to the SP and to the Congress in the Rae Bareli and Amethi seats, where the SP-BSP alliance has not fielded candidates. Mr. Modi said that while Ms. Mayawati openly criticised the Congress, the SP remained “soft and silent” towards the party for its selfish interests.
Mr. Modi said Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s remark that her party would play a spoiler for the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh seats where the Congress did not have a strong candidate, applied to only SP seats and not those contested by the BSP.
Retorting to him, Ms. Mayawati said that sensing that his party was lagging in the first four phases, Mr. Modi was trying to create differences between the two parties through a “divide and rule policy” so that the BJP “can save its honour” in the remaining three phases.
She said the PM’s comments were “baseless” and intended to only mislead the supporters of the two parties [SP and BSP].
Ms. Mayawati even said that she was confident every vote of the SP and the BSP, especially of the latter, in Amethi and Rae Bareli, would be transferred to the Congress.
Akhilesh Yadav, SP president, also shot back at the PM, saying his language had changed as the BJP was trailing in all phases. Talking to reporters, he said the next PM would be from the gathbandhan , and it would be even better if the post is held by a woman. “The PM only wants to deceive people. And for the BJP’s information, I would like to say that the SP and BSP will jointly decide what government will be formed and who will be the new PM,” Mr. Yadav said.
