Bahujan Samaj Party president and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati, on Sunday, reacted to the Congress president’s statement on the issue of sub-classification and ‘creamy layer’ within the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, saying the grand old party has given the credit of reservation to Nehru and Gandhi and there not an iota of truth in it.

The BSP chief said in a post on X, “Yesterday (on Saturday) after the BSP press conference, I came to know about the statement of the Congress national president in which the credit of reservation has been given not to Baba Saheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, but to Nehru (Jawaharlal Nehru) and Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), which does not have even an iota of truth.”

Talking to reporters in Lucknow on Saturday, Mayawati had said that the Bharatiya Janata Party government and the rest of the (political) parties should clarify their stand on this issue.

Mayawati wrote on X on Sunday, “In fact, the entire credit for reservation goes to Baba Saheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, whom the Congress people conspired to prevent from entering the Constituent Assembly; who was defeated in the elections and who was also forced to resign from the post of law minister.”

Recalling the statement of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, she said, “The national president of Congress said that before revealing its stand regarding sub-classification of SC and ST classes in the country, his party will consult NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and lawyers etc., which makes it clear that Congress is in favour of sub-classification.”

Mayawati accused the Congress of talking in a roundabout way about the ‘creamy layer’. She said that despite the Congress having 99 MPs, no voice was raised in Parliament till the recess to nullify the Supreme Court’s decision, while the Congress won these seats in the name of saving the Constitution and reservation.

Expressing opposition to the Supreme Court’s decision regarding sub-classification and ‘creamy layer’ within SC and ST, Kharge had said on Saturday that the government should have repealed the decision through Parliament as soon as it came.

Kharge told reporters in Delhi, “Recently, seven judges of the Supreme Court have given a decision, in which they have talked about the ‘creamy layer’ along with the sub-classification of the SC-ST category people. In India, the people of the Dalit community got reservation through Baba Saheb’s ‘Poona Pact’. Later, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi continued the reservation policy.”