Hindustan Times (Bathinda)

BJP will go for early Lok Sabha elections: Mayawati

- Hillary Victor hillary.victor@hindustant­imes.com

CHANDIGARH: BAHUJAN Samajwadi Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Thursday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will announce early Lok Sabha elections as it is having sleepless nights in the wake of the Uttar Pradesh bypoll results.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, who was in Chandigarh to address a rally to pay homage to BSP founder late Kanshi Ram on his birth anniversar­y, asked her party workers and supporters to gear up for an early poll.

Party supporters from Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh had gathered for the rally.

She said though both the BJP and the Congress were making claims of doing a lot for Dalits, the reality was something else. The Centre is trying to stop reservatio­ns in jobs by promoting privatisat­ion, she said.

“The BSP will attract likeminded political parties to counter the Modi wave. We successful­ly supported the Samajwadi Party in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur constituen­cies to defeat the BJP,” she said.

“The BJP and the RSS are spreading the Hindutva agenda and the situation in the country is worse than the emergency in 1975,” the former UP CM said.

She also accused the BJP of tampering with electronic voting machines (EVMS) in the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 assembly elections.

The BJP, she said, was giving patronage to people like Lalit Modi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya, who looted public sector banks and fled the country.

‘KARIMPURI DISAPPOINT­ED ME’

Mayawati said former BSP Punjab president Avtar Singh Karimpuri disappoint­ed her as he failed to make the party cadre strong in the state and Himachal Pradesh.

“I made him Rajya Sabha member from UP but he failed to perform. I even sent to HP as in-charge for the recent assembly poll but he failed again. I will not give him any responsibi­lity now,” she said. Karimpuri was also present on the stage when she was making the remarks.

 ?? RAVI KUMAR/HT ?? BSP chief Mayawati during a rally at Sector 25 in Chandigarh on Thursday.
RAVI KUMAR/HT BSP chief Mayawati during a rally at Sector 25 in Chandigarh on Thursday.

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