Tag: Mayawati

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Mayawati pledges to work for a new state

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati addresses a press conference at her residence, in Lucknow, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023.(IANS/Twitter:@Mayawati)

Critiquing the Congress, BJP, and Samajwadi Party (SP), Mayawati accused them of neglecting the interests of SC/ST communities and obstructing their access to reservation benefits…reports Asian Lite News

BSP chief Mayawati, addressing an election rally in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, made several promises aimed at addressing longstanding grievances and advocating for the rights of marginalized communities. Mayawati pledged to work towards the creation of a separate state comprising districts of western Uttar Pradesh and to establish a bench of the Allahabad High Court in Meerut if her party secures power at the Centre.

Critiquing the Congress, BJP, and Samajwadi Party (SP), Mayawati accused them of neglecting the interests of SC/ST communities and obstructing their access to reservation benefits. She vowed that, if elected, her party would actively address the demands and concerns of the region, including the establishment of an Allahabad High Court bench in Meerut.

Highlighting her party’s previous efforts to advocate for a separate state for western Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati lamented the lack of action from the central government on this matter. She affirmed her commitment to pursuing this cause if the BSP gains power at the national level.

Mayawati also criticized the alleged failure of the quota system in government jobs, particularly for Dalits, Adivasis, and OBCs, and condemned the SP for allegedly undermining reservation policies during its tenure in Uttar Pradesh. She accused the SP of obstructing legislation aimed at protecting reservation rights and of neglecting the interests of marginalized communities.

Further lambasting the Congress and BJP for their casteist and pro-capitalist policies, Mayawati argued that these parties have failed to ensure the holistic development of marginalized groups. She called for voters to prevent the Congress, BJP, and their allies from assuming power, cautioning against their divisive tactics.

In a departure from past electoral strategies, Mayawati revealed that her party had nominated Dervrat Tyagi instead of a Muslim candidate in Meerut. She urged voters to support the BSP candidate in the upcoming elections, emphasizing the importance of their collective voice in shaping the future of the region.

The BSP’s promises and Mayawati’s rallying cry underscored a commitment to addressing longstanding grievances and advocating for the rights of marginalized communities in Uttar Pradesh. As the elections approach, Mayawati’s words resonate with voters, highlighting the stakes involved in shaping the political landscape of the state.

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Setback for Maya, MP Ritesh Pandey joins BJP

Appreciating Ritesh Pandey for his decision, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak said that Ritesh Pandey decided to move with developed India…reports Asian Lite News

In a big blow for the Mayawati-led BSP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, BSP MP from Ambedkar Nagar, Ritesh Pandey, joined the BJP on Sunday.

Pandey joined the BJP in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak and other BJP leaders.

He resigned from the primary membership of the BSP earlier today.

On joining BJP, Ritesh Pandey said, “…I had been working for BSP for the last 15 years, I don’t want to comment on thinking and activities of her (Mayawati). I have written in detail about this in my resignation letter. Whatever is happening in my constituency has happened in the last five years.”

Hailing the state government for the latest development work in Uttar Pradesh, he said, “I have taken this decision after evaluating all those things that are happening on the ground, be it two industrial areas in the constituency, the Purvanchal expressway, Gorakhpur link expressway, schools, the four-lane road that connects Ambedkar Nagar to Ayodhya’s Ram temple.”

He further stated that the economic condition of people, farmers, women, and Dalits has changed, and their living standards have been uplifted.

Appreciating Ritesh Pandey for his decision, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak said that Ritesh Pandey decided to move with developed India.

“Ritesh ji has taken a bold step and will work to connect the youth across the country,” said Pathak.

Welcoming the leader to the BJP, the Deputy Chief Minister said that Ritesh Pandey is a popular leader and MP from Ambedkar Nagar. “I am happy to welcome him with all my heart,” he expressed.

“Seeing the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi worked, Ritesh Pandey ji took this decision,” Pathak applauded.

BSP MPs begin looking for greener pastures

The sitting MPs of the Bahujan Samaj Party have started looking for greener pastures for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections after party president Mayawati’s repeated assertions that the party would contest the polls on its own.

BSP MPs feel that with BJP-led NDA and Congress led-INDIA bloc, there would be a polarisation of votes between the two formations, leaving little scope for parties that contest independently.

BSP MP Afzal Ansari has already been declared a candidate by the Samajwadi Party from Ghazipur parliamentary seat. Another MP, Danish Ali, who has been suspended by Mayawati for anti-party activities, is on his way to the Congress and sources said that he was all set to contest Amroha seat on a Congress ticket.

One of the BSP MPs said that the Lok Sabha elections would be contested on a highly polarised note and in such a situation, the idea of contesting alone is not wise. “Why would someone vote for us if they know that we are neither going to sit in treasury benches and nor in the opposition? The BSP usually benefits in a multi-cornered contest but as things stand now, there will be a straight fight between NDA and INDIA bloc,” he said.

In 2019, the BSP had contested the general elections in alliance with the SP and had won 10 seats. However, immediately after the polls, Mayawati snapped ties with the SP. In the 2022 assembly polls, the BSP could manage to win only one seat, making it almost irrelevant in state politics.

Our working style is different, says Mayawati

Mayawati on Sunday called her party different from “the capitalist parties of the country.” She said her party is not just a political one but a movement inspired by the ideals of Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar. The party is dedicated to the mission of ensuring self-respect for the marginalised.

“The policy and working style of the party are different from those of the capitalist parties in the country. The party also fields candidates, keeping this in mind in the elections,” she added further.

Meanwhile, amid the widening rift over the INDIA bloc, and the speculation that many Congress leaders would jump ship to the BJP, Mayawati reiterated that there is no alliance with any party ahead of the Lok Sabha election and said that her party will contest the election alone.

The BSP chief said that her party may consider an alliance only after the elections are over.

On December 21, 2023, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati lashed out at member parties of the INDIA bloc, especially the Samajwadi Party (SP), who make comments on opposition parties that are not a part of the alliance.

Notably, the Samajwadi Party reportedly opposed the move to induct the BSP into the INDIA bloc at the fourth meeting of the INDIA parties. BSP was a major political force in Uttar Pradesh in the 1990s and 2000s but witnessed a gradual decline over the past decade.

In the 2022 assembly elections, the party polled only 12.8 per cent of the votes, its lowest in almost three decades. On Wednesday, as the farmers’ protests continued, BSP supremo Mayawati urged the government to take the demands of the farmers seriously and to consider them with empathy. (ANI)

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Channi as CM face desperate bid by Congress to revive fortunes: Mayawati

She also pointed out that it would have been better and more befitting if Channi had taken the blessings of Guru Ravidas-ji after being appointed the chief ministerial candidate of the Congress party…reports Asian Lite News

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) President Mayawati on Tuesday described the Congress party’s decision to declare incumbent Charanjit Singh Channi as its chief ministerial face in Punjab as a desperate attempt to revive its sinking fortunes in the state.

The BSP supremo, who addressed a large gathering here along with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal, in Nawanshahr said: “The Congress party only remembers Dalits at the time of elections. Once the elections are over they will sideline Charanjit Channi who is even now being remote controlled from Delhi.”

She also asked Channi to understand why he had been promoted in the party, saying the Congress party had a past history of using the Dalit community during elections.

She also pointed out that it would have been better and more befitting if Channi had taken the blessings of Guru Ravidas-ji after being appointed the chief ministerial candidate of the Congress party.

“I appeal to the Ravidas samaj to make Channi realise the value of Guru Ravidas-ji”, Mayawati added in her first election rally ahead of polling for 117 seats of the Assembly on February 20.

The BSP president, while expressing confidence that the SAD-BSP alliance would sweep the polls, said: “We all have to work unitedly to install Sukhbir Badal as the next chief minister of the state.”

She said she was confident that with Badal as the next chief minister special schemes would be launched to bring in all-round improvement in the life of the weaker sections of society.

In her message on the occasion, Mayawati said while the Congress party was dying a natural death across the country and its days were numbered in Punjab said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was also on its way out. “People realise the BJP has a corporate mindset and will make it meet the same fate as the Congress party.”

Speaking about Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Mayawati said people should see the conditions in Delhi for themselves before thinking of reposing faith in AAP in Punjab.

Speaking on the occasion, SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal stated that after Mayawati’s visit to Punjab, the SAD-BSP tsunami was set to sweep the state.

He said the Punjabis felt cheated by the Congress party which had done nothing and wasted five years by scrapping or curtailing all social welfare benefits given to Punjabis by Parkash Singh Badal, be it scrapping blue cards or curtailing old-age pension and shagun scheme.

He said similarly Punjabis could not trust AAP which had an anti-Punjab agenda.

He said AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal did not have any attachment with Punjab.

“Kejriwal has taken an anti-Punjab stance in the Supreme Court on key issues and even demanded transfer of Punjab’s river waters to Haryana and Delhi, closure of its thermal plants and registration of criminal cases against farmers who were forced to burn their paddy stubble.”

Badal also announced that all blue cards which had been deleted by the Congress government would be restored within one month of formation of the SAD-BSP government.

He also announced that Rs 2,000 per month would be given to the woman head of below poverty line families, all consumers would be given 400 units of power free of cost, Rs 10 lakh medical insurance cover would be given to all and that students will be eligible to a Rs 10 lakh loan for higher studies, besides 33 per cent reservation in technical institutions (government school students).

He also announced that all those who did not have a home would be given a five marla plot of land and that a 500 bed medical college would be established in every district of the state.

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Mayawati to launch campaign with Agra rally on Feb 2

The announcement comes after opposition parties, as well as her own party members, have been questioning her absence from the campaign….reports Asian Lite News

Even before the Election Commission lifts the curbs on election campaigning, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati has announced that she will launch her party’s campaign for Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls with a rally from Agra on February 2.

“The BSP chief will address a public meeting in Agra while following the Covid guidelines announced by the Election Commission of India,” said Satish Chandra Mishra, BSP MP.

The announcement comes after opposition parties, as well as her own party members, have been questioning her absence from the campaign.

Agra district, which has a large chunk of Dalit voters, has been a BSP stronghold ever since Kanshi Ram founded the party in 1984.

The BSP chief is working to regain hold over Dalits who constitute the base vote of the party. The BJP had made a dent into this vote base in 2017.

“Riding on Dalit-Muslim alliance, the BSP has been able to bag maximum seats in Agra in the successive assembly elections. In the 2007 Assembly elections when the BSP formed the government, the party had won six of the nine seats in Agra district. In the 2012 polls when the Samajwadi Party wave swept the state, the BSP managed to maintain hold in Agra by winning six Assembly seats,” said a BSP functionary.

In the 2017 UP polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was able to make inroads into the BSP citadel by bagging all the nine Assembly seats in the district.

The BSP candidates were runners-up in the eight Assembly seats.

Along with consolidating its hold over the Dalit voters, the BSP is also working on backward-Muslim and forward community alliance formula for the 2022 Assembly election.

For the first phase of UP election to be held on 58 Assembly seats spread in 11 districts, including Agra, on February 10, the BSP has given tickets to 16 Muslim candidates, 18 OBC, 9 Dalits and 15 upper castes nominees.

While other political parties, including the BJP, the SP and the Congress continued with their election campaign after the slowdown in the second Covid wave in July last, the BSP chief did not address public meetings.

However, BSP national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra addressed Brahmin conferences in all 75 districts of the state.

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Mayawati slams Yogi on CM bungalow remark

No sooner did Yogi Adityanath said this, pat came the reply from former Chief Minister Mayawati. In a series of tweets, the BSP supremo targeted Yogi Adityanath and the BJP fiercely…reports Asian Lite News

Targeting opposition parties ahead of the first phase of polls, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday accused his predecessors of building bungalows for themselves first after coming to power. Hitting back, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati who said that the mutt of Gorakhpur, where Adityanath resides, is also no less than a big bungalow.

Campaigning in Ghaziabad, Adityanath, in a voter dialogue programme, targeted the SP and Akhilesh Yadav, saying that when the SP government was formed, the Chief Minister and ministers built their own bungalows first, but under the BJP government, he and his ministers did not build their own residences, but provided house to 43 lakh poor people of the state. He claimed that the BJP government also provided toilets to 2 crore 61 lakh people in the state.

No sooner did Yogi Adityanath said this, pat came the reply from former Chief Minister Mayawati. In a series of tweets, the BSP supremo targeted Yogi Adityanath and the BJP fiercely.

Mayawati tweeted: “Perhaps the people of western UP do not know that the mutt built by Yogi ji in Gorakhpur, where he resides for most of the time, is no less than a big bungalow. It would have been better if he had told this to voters as well.”

Describing the achievements of the BSP government, Mayawati said in her next tweet: “Also, it would have been better if the UP CM, along with the praise of his government, also mentioned the works related to the public interest by the BSP government. They should know that the BSP government’s track record in giving houses to the poor and land to the landless has been excellent.”

In her third tweet, Mayawati, claiming to have provided houses to the poor during her tenure, said, “Under Manyavar Shri Kanshi Ram Ji Shahari Garib Awas Yojana, more than one and a half lakh pucca houses were given in just two phases. Many families were benefited under the Garib Awas Ownership Scheme. Lakhs of landless families were also given land.”

The BJP is constantly targeting the Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav as the campaigning for the first phase intensifies. In the battle between BJP and the SP, the BSP and Mayawati are still lagging behind. But in the last few days, Mayawati has been continuously targeting her opponents and claiming to remain in the race.

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Maya missing in action, focus on Dalit votes in UP

A day before she tweeted about the PM’s security breach and criticized the Punjab government where her party is contesting elections in alliance with the Akali Dal…reports Asian Lite News.

Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh polls the political parties have now shifted to the virtual mode but missing in action is Mayawati. The BSP supremo has not started her campaign but all the other political parties are active including the BJP with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing several rallies.

Mayawati’s inaction has led to some serious contenders throwing their hat into the ring for the Dalit votes, especially the Jatavs who have been with the Bahujan Samaj Party and did not desert during the bad times. But the silence of the BSP on core issues has led to suspicions in the minds of its leaders and almost all the big leaders including the legislative party leader have left the party and joined the Samajwadi Party.

But the BSP seems unfazed with the exit of its leaders and except for Satish Chandra Mishra no other leader is seen at its forefront. The Congress has termed it as the “B team” of the Bharatiya Janata Party while SP leader Akhilesh Yadav has refrained from attacking the BSP leader but has inducted all the BSP turncoats into his party.

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The four time Chief Minister of UP has been active only on Twitter. She sometimes issues a press note. A day before she tweeted about the PM’s security breach and criticized the Punjab government where her party is contesting elections in alliance with the Akali Dal.

In her absence most of the BSP leaders are joining the SP and mostly Brahmins are choosing it over the BJP. Former Bahujan Samaj Party MP Rakesh Pandey — father of BSP leader in the Lok Sabha, Ritesh Pandey — joined the Samajwadi Party on Monday along with his supporters. Earlier, Kushal Tiwari, a former BSP MP and son of Harishankar Tiwari, joined the SP with his whole clan.

Bahujan Samaj Party leaders say that the party has finalized candidates for a majority of the seats and the names of the selected candidates are being announced in meetings organised by the party leaders in various districts.

The BSP president has been accused of staying away from the political arena and has been limiting her activities to press statements and tweets. Party national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra has refuted this and said, “The BJP, SP and Congress are luring leaders with tickets for the assembly elections.”

Mishra said that the BSP was working on the social engineering formula of ‘sarvajan hitaye – sarvajan sukhaye’ to win the elections. Members of all communities were being given adequate representation in the distribution of tickets.

The BSP had managed to win only 19 seats in the 2017 assembly polls and is now left with merely six legislators since the others have either left or have been expelled.

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‘C’ in Cong stands for ‘cunning’: Mayawati lashes out at Congress

Mayawati’s statement comes after the Congress had flayed the party alleging that the “B” in BSP stood for the BJP….reports Asian Lite News

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) President Mayawati on Sunday said that the “C” in Congress meant “cunning”.

Mayawati’s statement comes after the Congress had flayed the party alleging that the “B” in BSP stood for the BJP.

“The ‘B’ in BSP stands for ‘Bahujan’ which includes Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and religious minorities. This group is in majority and that is why it is termed as ‘Bahujan’,” the BSP supremo said in a tweet.

Mayawati said the Congress was cunning because even though it asked votes from the ‘Bahujan’ but made sure that they remained their slaves.

She further said that no election — big or small — could be held in a free and fair manner if the BJP, Congress or the Samajwadi Party were in power.

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Mayawati has no plans for tie-up with Owaisi

Mayawati clarified that party will contest the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand alone….reports Asian Lite News

Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati has said that her party would contest the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand alone.

In a series of tweets on Sunday, she ruled out reports that the BSP would join hands with Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM in Uttar Pradesh.

“This news is being circulated that the AIMIM and BSP will fight the upcoming assembly elections in UP together. This news is completely false, misleading and baseless. There is not even an iota of truth in this, and BSP vehemently denies it,” she said.

She further said that the BSP would like to clarify that, except for Punjab, the party will contest the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand alone.

The BSP and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have allied to contest the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections.

The BSP, which stormed to power in 2007 by winning 206 seats, was left with just 80 seats in 2012.

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In 2014, Mayawati’s party did not win a single Lok Sabha seat, and in the 2017 Uttar Assembly elections, it bagged only 19 seats.

With BSP’s support base dwindling over the years, the BJP and the Samajwadi Party have been trying to woo the Dalit voters ahead of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2022.

In April, Akhilesh Yadav announced that Samajwadi Party (SP) will constitute a Baba Saheb Vahini named after Dalit icon Dr B.R. Ambedkar.

The Baba Saheb Vahini aims to bring Dalits into the Samajwadi fold and assure them protection against social exploitation.

The BJP has now announced that it will build a memorial in the name of Ambedkar.

The SP and BSP were allies in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

However, immediately after the Lok Sabha elections, Mayawati snapped ties with the party announcing that her party would never ally with SP again.

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