Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Wednesday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party for its ‘nationalism’ plank and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of misusing the martyrdom of jawans for election purposes.
Regretting that the country’s borders were still not totally secure, Mayawati also alleged that like the previous Congress governments, the BJP dispensation too was using the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department against its political opponents for electoral gains.
“Under such circumstances, the electorate have to see to it that neither the BJP nor the Congress come to power at the Centre,” the BSP chief said at an election meeting in Barabanki.
Claiming that the BJP would be voted out of power this time due to its pro-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, capitalist, communal and casteist policies, Mayawati said that no amount of ‘drama’ or jumlebazi (rhetoric) would help the party.
Warning people that her political opponents had ‘‘adopted every trick” to win the elections, Mayawati said the people should not fall for tall poll promises and allurements as was done by the BJP in the 2014 general elections.
The BSP chief also accused the Congress of ignoring the contributions of Dr BR Ambedkar and said that Bharat Ratna was awarded to Baba Saheb only when VP Singh was the prime minister.
“But the BJP, which was providing outside support to the VP Singh government, did not like the move to honour Dr Ambedkar and withdrew support,” Mayawati claimed.