Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Tuesday vowed to stop the BJP from coming to power at the Centre.
She said her party’s biggest achievement in Uttar Pradesh was to stymie the growth of the BJP and weaken communal forces.
Targeting the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, over the 2002 Gujarat riots, she said: “Even if the BJP apologises a thousand times, Muslims will not forgive it.”
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“The BJP’s pot of sins is overflowing. We have to stop them,” she said at a press conference here.
Scotching speculation on her party aligning with the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha election, Ms. Mayawati said she did not trust the party and would not go with it before or after the elections. “Whenever we have formed a government with them [the BJP] in Uttar Pradesh, their graph has gone down, which has weakened the communal forces. This has been our biggest achievement.”
Lashing out at the Samajwadi Party for the Muzaffarnagar communal clashes, she said it was only under the BSP government that Muslims felt safe. “We have full faith that they [Muslims] will back us in the Lok Sabha elections.”
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Accusing the BJP and the SP of polarising Muslim votes, she said both parties were pretending that no other party was in the fray.
Asked which party she would support for government formation, she said it was possible that other parties might have to support her. “We were extending outside support to the Congress-led UPA to keep communal parties away. This time, it is possible that these parties may support us.”
To a question about her becoming Prime Minister, she said it was the “dream of BSP workers.”
“Paswan opportunistic”Ms. Mayawati ruled out joining the Third Front. She criticised Lok Jan Shakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan for aligning with the BJP, saying he was “opportunistic and never wanted to be without power or a ministry.”
She confirmed that the BSP would contest all Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. Even in States where the party had five or six per cent vote, she would field candidates. She had already met workers from Kerala and Andhra Pradesh to choose candidates.