Zee Media Bureau/ Ritesh K Srivastava
Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Wednesday kick started her party`s campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by targeting her political rivals, including the incumbent Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh.
Addressing a huge gathering of party supporters at the Ramabai Ambedkar Maidan, the BSP chief said, “This year I have decided not to celebrate my birthday like previous years because of the communal riots in Muzaffarnagar, which led to the killing of several innocent people.”
Making a direct attack on her political opponents, Mayawati said, “You must know how all other parties are conspiring against the BSP. That is why we`re at this rally.”
The BSP chief told her supporters how Congress and the BJP have tried to suppress her voice at times but she never compromised on her principles and values.
“I did not succumb to political pressure or give in to the BJP`s demands when they withdrew support to my government,” Mayawati said at the Lucknow rally.
“Like Congress, the BJP also misused CBI to pressurise BSP in 2003 to forge an alliance at the national level,” Mayawati alleged.
In a direct attack on the Congress regime, the BSP leader said, “You all known that my party`s rising support base in UP and elsewhere has given sleepless nights to Congress and the ruling party misused Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to falsely implicate me in the Taj Corridor Case and Disproportionate Assets case.
“The Congress-led central government has misused CBI to harass me but I was determined that I will never budge before such fascists and communal forces and will continue to work for the downtrodden.”
Coming down heavily on her rivals, the BSP chief said, “No one thought that my party would get an absolute majority in the 2007 UP polls. In 2009 we won 20 out of 80 seats and were 2nd in 47 seats because all parties unitedly contested against BSP.”
The national icon of Dalits said that her rivals united to politically eliminate her when she set her sight on Delhi.
“In order to stop the daughter of a Dalit from becoming the Prime Minister, all parties despite being enemies of each other joined hands to stop us. But the Congress and BJP should know that they have no future without BSP’s support.”
Attacking the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh, the BSP chief said, “Crime and criminals have risen in the state ever since the Samajwadi Party has come to power. There is a complete lawlessness everywhere in UP and honest officers in all government departments are being targeted and shunted.”
The Samajwadi Party has completely lost control over mafia and criminal elements, people of state now feel highly unsafe under the SP rule and the communal riots in Muzaffarnagar is a classic example of the state government`s insensitive attitude towards there problems.“
“Uttar Pradesh has today become a crime capital, due to communal riots people in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli have not been able to recover,” the BSP chief said.
Mayawati also attacked the UP government for reversing the welfare schemes initiated by the BSP government.
“When we were in power,we spent lakhs on welfare schemes for people, but the Samajwadi Party government has stopped them now,” she said.
The BSP leader said that she will continue to spearhead the movement of her party, which was formed for poor, Muslims, Dalits, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Asking her partymen to unit against the fascist and communal forces, she said, “I have brought out the 9th edition of my book in Hindi and English that highlights our movement and its achievements and will continue to guide your path in the future too.”
Mayawati also sounded the poll bugle by kicking off the party`s campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in the presence of a mammoth crowd in a rally here to mark her 58th birthday.
During her speech, Mayawati also touched upon all national issues like corruption and inflation, besides the state issues like law and order problem, communal harmony.
“It is difficult for the poor to survive because of inflation which is a result of wrong policies of the central government,” Mayawati said.
She also give a message to her workers on how they should proceed ahead of the elections by saying, “We have to unite Dalits across India.”
She also condemned the cultural extravaganza in Saifai - the native district of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav – and said it only showed the highly insensitive and inhuman behaviour.
