‘Akhilesh engineered SP fued to help BJP’
GORAKHPUR: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra feels Uttar Pradesh election results will negate opinion polls that say that his party is trailing rivals. In an interview with Abdul Jadid, Mishra talks about his party and many things related to it. Excerpts:
How satisfied are you with your party’s performance in the UP elections so far?
Well, trends show that the BSP is going to make a clean sweep. We have got support from every community, including Jats and minorities in west UP. I can’t specify the number of seats we are going to win, but all I can say is that the results will be spring a surprise, especially for the media that has downgraded the BSP in opinion polls.
The BSP fielded maximum Muslim candidates. Was it to stop Muslim voters from supporting SPCongress alliance?
No... the ticket distribution has been done on the basis of the ratio of their population. Brahmins, Dalits and others too have been given tickets with same consideration.
CM Akhilesh Yadav is claiming that Mayawati has agreed to sit in the opposition... Is he undermining your party’s ability?
Akhilesh is fighting elections under BJP’s pressure. It was the reason why he went on to split his party. His father has already made it clear in the media that Akhilesh and his (Mulayam’s) cousin engineered the split to help BJP. After the split, the party grew weaker and sought Congress’s support. Congress is already in a bad condition...
Akhilesh often attacks Mayawati over parks and statues... Mayawati now says she won’t make them anymore. Do you think it was BSP govt’s mistake to make parks and statues?
No. We didn’t. Building memorials in respects of great personalities is not a mistake at all. Akhilesh too built Janeshwar Mishra Park and a new high court building in Lucknow. Similar red stone were used in these constructions. Will anybody ask him why did he do so?
Why did BSP allow Mafiosi-turnedpolitician Mukhtar Ansari’s Quami Ekta Dal to merge with it?
Mukhtar Ansari belongs to a political family. He is exonerated in all cases except two... BJP people must also see the crime record of its state president Keshav Prasad Maurya.
Will the Congress’s alliance with the SP dent the BSP’s social engineering by causing division of Brahmin votes?
Not only Brahmin but people from all sections of the society have consolidated in favour of the BSP ever since the SP-Congress alliance took place. Vijay Mishra, a prominent Brahmin face of BJP, quit the party to join us.
Your senior leaders like Swamy Prasad Maurya, a backward face, deserted party charging Mayawati of auctioning tickets. Will it impact result in east UP?
No. It will make no difference. Leave alone Dalits, people from his own community are not with them. All know what kind of treatment is meted out to him in the BJP. He demanded 35 seats but was given only two.
What’s your party’s stand on issues like triple talaq and reservation?
I need not say anything over these as the BSP supremo has already expressed her views.