Farmers Movement Archive

BSP to go it alone in 2022 UP polls: Mayawati

LUCKNOW: BSP chief Mayawati on Monday declared that her party would not be entering into any alliance for the 2022 assembly polls in UP. The former UP chief minister, who had tied up with Samajwadi Party for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls but failed to win a significant number of seats, said that while she was able to transfer votes of her supporters en bloc to the partner party, the opposite was not true. Appealing to her party workers and candidates who are contesting elections in West Bengal, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu to give their best and ensure that the BSP movement spreads in these states as well, Mayawati said that she had not tied up with any party for these states either. “Our vote is transferable but we do not benefit from an alliance. We give our votes to the other party but do not get their votes. Therefore, BSP will contest all seats in the 2022 assembly elections on its own and not leave any seat for anyone,” she said, reiterating the charge she had made against SP when she broke off the alliance after the poor show in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Speaking at an event to mark the 87th birth anniversary of BSP founder Kanshi Ram on Monday, Mayawati said that Kanshiram worked on the ideals of BR Ambedkar to uplift dalits, backwards, Muslims and other religious minorities. After his death, BSP is the only party which is working to fulfil his dreams. “Under the current BJP government in UP, people are witnessing poor law and order while it is also clear that most of the encounters and use of bulldozers (to raze property of alleged criminals) are a result of the government’s casteist and biased policies. Development is also mostly on paper or in the media but nothing can be seen on ground,” she said. The BSP chief said that governments were coming up with new laws each day to harass the common people and the Centre’s farm laws were an example of this. She said that farmers had been protesting against these laws for weeks and BSP had been continuously demanding that these be withdrawn since the stakeholders, the farmers, were against them. “The government should provide financial assistance to families of those farmers who have died during the protests and to give a government job to one member of their families,” she said. Mayawati also questioned the rise in the prices of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and other essential commodities which were making the common people suffer, while on the other hand, the personal wealth of a handful of industrialists was skyrocketing, leading to questions over the government’s policies and intent.

The Times of India

2021-03-16

Lucknow