Mayawati kicks-off campaign to reclaim Dalit vote, says situation in country worse than Emergency

Meerut: Two months after she stormed out of the Rajya Sabha, BSP chief Mayawati on Monday kicked-off a massive campaign in an attempt to reclaim her Dalit constituency.

Addressing a large gathering of supporters and party workers in Meerut, the former Uttar Pradesh CM said that the situation in the country was 'worse than Emergency', "Various arms and agencies of the central government like Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Income Tax (IT) have been let loose on Opposition leaders to intimidate them and muzzle their voice."

She also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of not being serious about the welfare of the Dalits and the weaker classes of society and cited how she was not allowed by the treasury benches in the Rajya Sabha to speak on the caste conflict in Saharanpur.

"When I was not being allowed to raise the issues regarding my people, I decided to resign," Mayawati said, justifying her resignation from the Upper House of the Parliament.

She claimed that the BJP triggered "riots between Dalits and Kshatriya outfits" and clashes had broken out "on the day of my visit to Shabbirpur in Saharanpur district. It was planned."

Further, the BSP supremo raked up the issue of 'faulty and tampered' EVMs, which she said dented the BSP and worked in favour of the BJP in the UP Assembly elections earlier this year.

The Dalit leader slammed the Yogi Adityanath government in the state and said it was hoodwinking the farmers of the state on its poll promise of a loan waiver.

"The fraud they are doing on the hapless farmers is being exposed now as at many places farmers have got loan waiver cheques of Rs 1 and Rs 10," she said. 

Mayawati assured her supporters that desertions by senior leaders and 'conspiracies' by opponents will not be a deterrent for her in fighting for their cause.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, her party drew a blank and in the 2017 state Assembly polls, the party got only 19 of the 403 seats, coming a poor third to the BJP and the Samajwadi Party (SP).

In 2012 when ousted from power by the SP, it had got 80 seats.

(With Agency inputs)