On b'day, Mayawati's optimism for 2024, attack on BJP, concerns over EVM

Reported by Rajesh Kumar Singh | Edited by Swati Bhasin, New Delhi

Updated on: Jan 15, 2023 11:54 am IST

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Mayawati said the BJP won't forge an alliance for upcoming polls.

Mayawati on Sunday continued her attack on the ruling BJP as she turned 67 with her party workers celebrating the day as "Jan Kalyankari Diwas". The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister - whose Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has faced an abysmal poll performance in the recent times - called on to her party workers to start preparation for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. While many opposition leaders, including her former ally Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav, have been trying to forge a united front against the BJP before the next national polls, Mayawati has maintained a distance despite relentless criticism of the ruling party.

Speaking at a briefing on Sunday, Mayawati said her BSP won't forge an alliance with any party for the upcoming state elections or the 2024 national polls. Nine states are due to hold assembly elections in the coming months. "The BSP will not form alliance with any party in the Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka assembly election as well as the 2024 Lok Sabha election," she insisted, while stressing that "rival parties are using all tricks to stop BSP from coming to power."

"Due to wrong policies of the BJP government the people are facing natural disaster," she further said in an apparent reference to the sinking of the Joshimath town in Uttarakhand. "The central agencies have been politicized," the BSP chief underlined.

She also raised concerns over the use of electronic voting machines. "Since 1984, ballot paper use the vote percentage not decreased. With the use of EVM (electronic voting machines), the party voting percentage has gone down. In various countries the EVM had been withdrawn and ballot papers is being used. It's the work of the EVM that BSP vote has decreased. I have urged the Election Commission to use ballot paper," she said.

She also targeted the Congress and Akhilesh Yadav's SP in her address. "The reservation for the OBC, SC/ST is not being implemented by the BJP government. The Congress and Samajwadi Party has also cheated the OBC, SC and ST community. The political parties have raised doubts over the use of EVM in the polling," Mayawati said.