Be wary of leaders who get ‘sold out’ for personal gains: Maya

LUCKNOW : Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, who has expelled 11 party MLAs and three state party chiefs in the past three years and seen several of her key aides’ defecting either to the BJP or the SP, has hit out at party deserters who get ‘sold out’ for individual gains.

After a meeting at the party office in Lucknow on Saturday called to expand the party’s base ahead of 2022 UP polls, she urged the party leaders and workers to start holding small meetings of the party cadres across the state.

These cadres, she said, would connect with the masses and remind them of the various initiatives and works undertaken by the BSP leadership when the party was in power in the state. “We need to continue with such small cadre meetings,” said the four-time former UP chief minister. At the meeting, she cautioned cadres against those party leaders who were deserting the party for individual gains. “We have to realign ourselves and work with missionary zeal to ensure a BSP government in the state that works for the welfare of all. The party people must trust cadre more than such leaders who take the name of Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram ji but who get sold out for individual gains,” Mayawati said at the meeting.

The BSP had 18 MLAs in the state’s legislative assembly but after rebellion of 9 lawmakers, including Ramvir Upadhyaya, Anil Singh, Aslam Raini, Aslam Ali, Mujtaba Siddiqui, Hakim Lal Bind, Hargovind Bhargava, Sushma Patel, Vandana Singh as well as recent expulsion of Lalji Verma and Ramachal Rajbhar, the party’s effective strength has since been reduced to seven MLAs. In fact, as she spoke, one of her suspended party MLAs Ramvir Upadhyaya, whose son Chiragvir has already joined the BJP, was seen with BJP leaders in Mathura. Upadhyaya was among BSP’s key Brahmin leaders who served as power minister in the Maya government in 2007.

“We are in an election year now so the effective current strength of parties in assembly is meaningless. The model code would come into force in another seven to eight months’ time. Defections are common in an election year but those who have left BSP for other parties have soon realised that they have been used,” a BSP leader said. At the meeting Mayawati, party leaders said, cautioned the cadres against leaders who ‘bik jaate hain’ (get sold out). “Such people don’t hesitate about harming the party movement and get sold out though in the end these people end up harming themselves the most which they realise later. We need to stay wary of such people,” she said.

Mayawati followed the ‘bik jaate hain’ phrase by reminding the cadre that BSP was a ‘movement-based’ party which relied on cadres for support, a BSP leader said. This was the first time Mayawati spoke after expelling two of her trusted MLAs in the party— veteran Lalji Verma and former UP BSP chief Ramachal Rajbhar.