UP elections 2017: PM Modi, BJP Chief Amit Shah dreaming of harming state, says BSP supremo Mayawati

Deoria: Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati hurled the “guru-chela” barb at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah in her signature style at an election rally, claiming that the duo were “dreaming of harming” Uttar Pradesh.

“Guru and chela have together harmed the country…’guru’ means Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ‘chela’ means Mr Shah… now, they together are dreaming of harming the state,” she alleged.

Ms Mayawati’s jibe was in response to BJP leaders’ tactic of referring to Mayawati and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, as ‘bua-bhatija’ (aunt and nephew) during campaigning.

Referring to Mr Shah’s ‘KASAB’ acronym for the Congress, Samajwadi Party and BSP, Mayawati reiterated, “There is no other Kasab (meaning terrorist) bigger than the BJP president… Gujarat is an example before you to see and ensure that this Kasab does not come (to power) here.”

She said, “Muslims need to vote en masse for the BSP, whose Dalit vote is intact and is ready to defeat the BJP… if Muslims vote for the BSP, the BJP will get a setback and will not be able to come to power in the state.”

Alleging that minorities, especially Muslims, are being subjected to “stepmotherly treatment”, Ms Mayawati cautioned Muslims against voting for the SP, saying it would “directly benefit the BJP”.

She also alleged that BJP will “end reservation by following the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) agenda” or will make it ineffective. On BJP’s promise that the party will bring prosperity to the households after coming to power in the state, the BSP chief said, “After playing petty politics on graveyard-cremation ground, Kasab, slaughter houses and donkeys of Gujarat they are now promising ‘doodh aur ghee ki nadi’.”

“They can make any promise they want like the ones made during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, but people will not fall for it,” she added.

Because of the wrong policies of the BJP-led government at the Centre and the SP government in Uttar Pradesh, 22 crore people of the state are angry and frustrated, Ms Mayawati claimed.

On the SP-Congress alliance, the BSP chief said, “The SP is considered symbolic to crime, corruption and ‘jungle raj’. People have to decide whether they will vote for the tainted face of SP-Congress or the clean one of BSP, which has shown how the rule of law is imposed.”