Mayawati demands Akhilesh Yadav apologise to Jat community over RLD remarks
BSP supremo Mayawati on Saturday, August 22, demanded that Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav apologise to the Jat community over his remarks about the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and its president, Union Minister Jayant Chaudhary.
In a post on X, Mayawati described Yadav’s comment that the RLD had been turned from a “chavani” into a rupee as “improper, indecent and shameful”. She said the SP chief should apologise to the RLD, Chaudhary and the wider Jat community for what she termed an insult to the family of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh.
Jayant Chaudhary is Charan Singh’s grandson and the son of former Union minister Ajit Singh.
Mayawati accused the SP of pursuing caste-driven politics and alleged that its approach had harmed even its former allies. She further claimed that the party’s politics had, on several occasions, helped the BJP electorally by weakening other secular parties.
Recalling the 1993 SP-BSP alliance, Mayawati said it collapsed because of what she called the SP’s “arrogant” approach, eventually leading to the 1995 Lucknow state guest house incident. She also referred to the 2019 Lok Sabha alliance between the two parties, alleging that it ended after the SP failed to achieve the electoral results it had expected.
She accused the SP of entering alliances for political advantage and changing its position once its interests were served.
Targeting Akhilesh Yadav’s PDA — Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak — formula, Mayawati alleged that the meaning of the term “P” was changed depending on political circumstances, including its use to represent backward classes or Brahmin interests.
She further alleged that previous SP governments had failed to take effective measures for Dalits, backward classes, minorities and upper-caste communities, while benefiting criminal and influential elements.
Mayawati appealed to voters to remain cautious of what she described as the SP’s “narrow and casteist politics” and urged them not to bring the party back to power in next year’s Assembly elections.
