Mayawati invokes dalits, OBCs, and minorities at Ghaziabad rally

During her speech, BSP chief underlined that the poor, dalits, adivasis (tribals), backward classes, Muslims and other religious minorities, have suffered

Ghaziabad: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Sunday chose to speak about the suffering of the backwards, Dalits, Muslims and other religious minorities as she attacked the present Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and previous Congress governments.

Experts observed it was BSP chief’s attempt to garner votes of these classes besides making an endeavour to retain her party’s core vote bank. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

These people are also referred to as PDAs (pichda, dalit and alpsankhyak) in political parlance.

Experts observed it was BSP chief’s attempt to garner votes of these classes besides making an endeavour to retain her party’s core vote bank.

Mayawati has served as UP’s chief minister for four times. But in 2012, the BSP lost power to the Samajwadi Party after securing only 80 seats in the UP assembly. Its fortunes further dipped in 2017 when it secured only 19 seats while in 2022 it could secure only one of the total 403 seats.

On Sunday, the BSP chief sought to highlight in Ghaziabad that her party has opted to go solo in these elections and it has reasons for that.

Attacking the BJP, she said that it may not come to power so easily because they have an agenda and narrow thinking of casteism, capitalism and communalism.

She hoped that the present elections would be “free and fair”, without any disturbance to the EVMs which is a point of common discussion.

“The BJP this time will not get benefitted from ‘Jumlebaazi’ (false promises) or any ‘Guarantee’ as they could not even complete about one-fourth of their works promised to people... They only protect capitalists and with their financial help they run their organisation and get helped in contesting elections. Much of the revelations have been made through electoral bonds’ report,” she said, and alleged that “like the Congress, the BJP too also politicised the enforcement agencies”.

The Supreme Court (SC) earlier in February struck down the Centre’s 2018 electoral bond scheme of political funding, declaring it to be “unconstitutional”. The apex court also ordered for full disclosure of donors and recipients of bonds issued since April, 2019 on the website of the Election Commission of India.

During her speech, she underlined that the poor, dalits, adivasis (tribals), backward classes, Muslims and other religious minorities, have suffered.

“The Dalits, adivasis and OBCs reservation quota in government jobs across the country is yet to be fulfilled for many years... Especially, the reservation in promotions of SC/ST government employees is now almost made ineffective. Most of the government works are now given to corporates and the sections are not getting the benefit of reservation, and face exploitation...,” she said.

“Muslims and other religious-minorities are also facing issues at every level and much of this revelation has been made in the Sachar Committee report. They are mostly facing extreme injustice in the name of Hindutva or religion,” Mayawati added.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in March, 2005 constituted the Justice Rajender Sachar Committee to report on the social, educational and economic status of Muslim community in the country.

Later, the committee submitted its report to the central government on November 17, 2006 and suggested a host of recommendations to improve the education, employment and economic standards of Muslims while keeping in mind their low representation in government jobs.

Mayawati also alleged that the poor, farmers, small and medium businessmen were also troubled besides the country’s economy getting affected due to government policies.

The corruption at every level has not ended... So, you have to stop the BJP, Congress and their allies from coming to power, she said.

“They are trying every tactic to come to power. They are also trying to use media, opinion polls and surveys and we have to remain cautious about this. As people have lost confidence in their promises in the form of manifestoes, we do not issue any such manifestoes but depend mostly on our works,” she asserted.

In an oblique reference to the Centre offering free ration to 800 million people in the country, Mayawati said that free ration given to the poor does not serve any permanent problem of poor people.

Experts said that this scheme garnered votes for the BJP in the 2022 UP assembly elections.

“They will get relief only when they get employment... If we come to power, we will address the issues of unemployment, price rise and poverty by changing economic policies. We will also stop their discrimination, especially of Muslims, they face in the name of Hindutva and religion. We will also stop this and ensure safety of the poor, dalits, backwards, Muslims and other religious minorities. We have shown our works during our governments in UP. So, you should not let your vote divide and give it to the BSP,” the BSP chief added.

Experts said that the BSP has been able to retain its core vote bank in UP despite losses in previous elections.

Now, the BSP is trying to get votes from OBCs, minorities and Muslims in order to increase its vote bank and win as many seats as possible out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP, they said.

“With this, BSP’s stakes will be high when the results are out. By attacking the BJP, the BSP is trying to garner anti-BJP votes and this would mean loss to the INDIA bloc,” said KK Sharma, associate professor (history) from CCS University, Meerut.

The BJP leaders, however, claim that they will win in a big way this time.

“The BSP is nowhere in the fight and our party is gaining very well in UP. We are going to win majority seats in UP and our candidate will win by a margin of 7-8 lakh (700,000 to 800,000) votes,” said Ajay Sharma, Lok Sabha convener (BJP, Ghaziabad).

The Congress leaders alleged that the BSP candidates are not seen campaigning anywhere and the BSP is just trying to help the BJP.

“Our INDIA bloc candidates in western UP have active support from backward, Dalits and minorities across western UP. In fact, our alliance partner and Samajwadi Party chief has raised the issues concerning backwards, Dalits and minorities. Our leader Rahul Gandhi has voiced major concerns for these sections during his two major road rallies across the country,” said Vinit Tyagi, district president of the Congress.