Backwards, Dalits did not get full benefit of reservation in BJP govt: Mayawati

Dalits, OBCs have not got the full benefit of reservation under the BJP government in the state, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said here on Monday.

While addressing an election meeting at KP College ground here, Mayawati also said that the BJP government did not give full benefit of BSP’s schemes to the poor, labourers as well as Dalits, tribals, Other Backward Classes and minorities.

Targeting the Samajwadi Party, the BSP chief alleged that the goons, mafia elements and those who openly loot and riot ruled the roost during the SP rule in the state.

She said that under the SP government, the scheme for Dalit students to study abroad was scrapped, scholarships for Dalit students was stopped, it also abolished the priority given to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the allotment of government land.

The former UP chief minister alleged that the SP government had come up with a new rule regarding the purchase of land belonging to SC/STs, in which anyone can buy their land without the permission of the District Magistrate. ”This rule was brought so that their land could be easily grabbed”, she said.

Targeting the Congress, Mayawati said that after the independence, there had been Congress governments at the Center and in most of the states but due to its wrong policies, it is out of power in other states as well as in Uttar Pradesh.

She said that when the Congress was in power, it had not done not any thing for Dalits. Had the Congress party done it, ”We would not have needed to form the BSP,” Mayawati reasoned.

She also lambasted the leaders who left the BSP and went to other parties.

”Those who have cheated and gone to another party, especially the Samajwadi Party and are contesting elections,… one of them Indra (Indrajit Saroj) is contesting a seat in district Kaushambi. Seeing today’s crowd, I am sure … they will surely lose their sleep,” she claimed.