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The Times of India
The Times of India
National
Pankaj Shah | TNN

Rahul emulating his father in maligning BSP, its leaders: Mayawati

LUCKNOW: Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Sunday tore into former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, accusing him of following the footsteps of his father and former PM late Rajiv Gandhi in maligning the image of her party and its leaders.

Had offered CM's post to Mayawati but she 'did not even talk to us': Rahul Gandhi

Maya's stinging offensive at Rahul came a day after he claimed that the BSP boss did not respond to Congress's offer of being made the CM candidate while forging an alliance in the recently concluded UP polls. She advised the Congress leader to put his own house in order before making any offer to others.

Rahul had also reportedly said that Mayawati “did not” contest UP polls at all “out of the fear of CBI and ED.”

Junking Rahul's claim out rightly, Mayawati accused the Congress and its previous regimes of blocking efforts made for emancipation of Dalit while denying them reservation benefits and diverting funds for the socially oppressed classes for other purposes.

The BSP supremo categorically charged the Congress of using "all possible means" to weaken Dalit movement started by BR Ambedkar and BSP founder Kanshi Ram. She, in fact, went on to claim that Rajiv Gandhi once falsely called Kanshi Ram a "CIA agent". "He (Rahul) has only been following his father's footsteps by slandering BSP's reputation by accusing it of having a tacit understanding with the BJP. This is completely unfounded," she said.

Mayawati said that when BSP came to power with absolute majority in 2007, the then Congress-led UPA government at the Centre created hurdles in various projects initiated by her government. Mayawati said that the Centre did not provide Central security forces at the time when the high court delivered a judgement on Ram Janmabhoomi.

"This reeked of a conspiracy of destabilising my government and then imposing President rule to govern the door from the back door," she said. Mayawati said that Rahul himself had tried to stoke unrest in the state by holding protests and demonstrations. "This has not been the case with governments of other political parties," she said.

"Rahul is not able to put his own house in order. Instead, he is passing baseless comments on BSP which shows his frustration," Mayawati said, underscoring that the Congress endeavours of striking an alliance with the Samajwadi Party in 2017 only resulted in galactic rise of the BJP in UP.

Mayawati's aggressive retort at Congress potentially underlined her fresh bid to consolidate her core Dalit vote bank which is being eyed by the opposition, including the Congress, in the run-up to Lok Sabha elections due in 2024. It is widely believed that that the fall in Dalit support led to the plunging of BSP vote -- from over 22% in 2017 to less than 13% this time.

The BSP president said that Congress should mull over its own performances against BJP. "Congress's strategy of fighting BJP politically has always been callous," she said, insisting that the grand old party was never seen up against BJP and its ideological fountainhead, the RSS, wholeheartedly.

Mayawati further castigated the BJP for using all possible means to make India not only free of Congress but also the "entire opposition" to establish a "China like one-party system". "Their idea is to crush democracy and do away with the constitution," Mayawati said.

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