The president of Bahujan Samaj Party and the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati dubbed her party's sweep in the Assembly by-elections as a reiteration of the people's faith in the policy of “sarvjan hitaya, sarvjan sukhaya.”
She added that the by-poll results had exposed the Opposition parties, who had unleashed a malicious propaganda against her Government.
Targeting the Samajwadi Party, the BSP president said in a press release that the negative politics had led it to lose its traditional Bhartana and Etawah seats. Ms. Mayawati slammed her bete noire and SP president, Mulayam Singh and said the Congress victory in Firozabad was a manifestation of the people's anger against dynastic politics pursued by him.
Ms. Mayawati noted that in the 2007 UP Assembly elections, the BSP had won only the Lalitpur seat, but in the recent by-elections the party added eight new seats to its tally in the State Assembly. The BSP wrested Bhartana, Powayan, Isauli, Hainser Bazar and Etawah from Samajwadi Party and Padrauna and Jhansi from the Congress. The BSP also triumphed in Rari, which was won by the party's MP from Jaunpur, Dhananjay Singh on a Janata Dal ( United ) ticket in the 2007 Assembly elections.
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister waxed eloquent that the BSP won in Jhansi and Padrauna, which were represented in the Vidhan Sabha by two Central Ministers, Pradeep Jain and RPN Singh. She claimed that the BSP would have won from Lucknow West had the BJP not diverted its vote to the Congress.
Stating that the by-polls had exposed the Opposition's conspiracy against her, Ms. Mayawati said the BSP cadres had been told about the designs of the Congress, SP and the BJP before the by-elections. She said the verdict had cut short the Opposition design to upstage her.
Published - November 10, 2009 08:15 pm IST