Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, on the third day of her whirlwind tour of west UP, lambasted her former ally Samajwadi Party accusing it of insulting Dalits and Muslims and treating the minority community as its slave.
Addressing an election rally in Amroha, Mayawati urged Dalits and Muslims not to vote for the Samajwadi Party.
Devoting a substantial part of her speech in Amroha on SP, with whom she is battling for support of minorities and Jats, Mayawati sought to remind people about frequent riots during Samajwadi Party government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav and promised better law and order if BSP was voted to power. She also promised people from upper castes and Muslims that there would be no bias against them, as was evident during five years of Bharatiya Janata Party rule.
Claiming to have given representation to all communities in ticket distribution, Mayawati accused the Samajwadi party of ignoring Muslims.
“The Muslims of Uttar Pradesh overwhelmingly supported the Samajwadi Party in 2017 but what they got in return from that party. I want to ask the leaders of the Muslim community how many tickets have been given by the Samajwadi party to Muslims,” Mayawati said while addressing the rally at Amroha.
“Samajwadi Party should have given due representation to Muslims for the empowerment of the community but they were denied the opportunity. In Saharanpur division, the Muslims always stood by the Samajwadi Party, but the party ditched the community when it distributed tickets for the UP assembly elections,” Mayawati said.
Referring to Muzaffarnagar communal riots in 2013 during the Akhilesh Yadav rule, Mayawati said, “The then Samajwadi Party engineered the riots to destroy social and communal harmony in western UP.”
She said the Muzaffarnagar communal riots were the worst instance of communal violence in western UP. She said the communal riots in Muzaffarnagar along with Muslims also inflicted huge damage to Jatav (Dalit) community in Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Kairana.
“When SP was in power, criminals had a free run. The party allowed law and order to deteriorate for its narrow political gains. Communal flare-ups were commonplace, especially in western UP. Do not forget Muzaffarnagar riots,” she said, adding that under SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, the situation was no better.
“When I was Bijnor MP, riots erupted in my constituency. The then collector was from the Yadav community. Moradabad, Sambhal and Saharanpur too were rocked by violence and many people died. Muslims bore the brunt. When I tried to visit the area, I was stopped and could finally proceed after Centre’s intervention,” she said