The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
BJP may not return to power if EVMS not tampered with: Maya
BAHUJAN SAMAJ Party (BSP) president Mayawati claimed on Sunday that the chance soft hebjp coming back to power at the Centre “are very dim” if the polls are held in a free and fair manner and electronic voting machines (EVMS) are not tampered with.
Launching her party's campaign for the Lok Sabha elections from Saharan pu ron the birth anniversaryof dal it icon d rb him rao Ambedkar, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said like the Congress the BJP also politicised government probe agencies which carry out the their agenda by going after those who do not fall in line.
“There is a huge gap between the words and deeds of the BJP leaders but people have become aware of their jumlabazi and nautanki. The party made countless promises to the people of the country before coming to power in 2014 but not even one fourth of them were fulfilled,” she alleged.
The BSP, she added, is the only party which speaks less but deliver son the ground, which is why it never released its election manifesto before going to the polls.
“Our party was in power (in UP) for four terms and without making unattainable promises we worked for the upliftment of the poor and the downtrodden. Th eb sp has not entered into an alliance with the BJP, Congress or other parties and decided to fight the elections on its own. I took special care that in ticket distributionour party has candidates from all sections. our candidates belong to all castes and faiths, including Muslims. But for other parties, caste and community are the primary consideration in the allotment of tickets,” she said.
The BSP has fielded Majid Ali from Saharanpur and Shripal Rana, a Thakur, from Kairana.
Reaching out to the Thakur community, which recently held a mahapanchayat in Saharanpur over “nearly negligible” presence of their community leaders in the list of BJP candidates, Mayawati said, “In Kairana,we have given ticket to sh rip al ran a who is an ex serviceman. The BJP did not give tickets to any Thakur from here. I hope the community will also support the party’s Muslim candidate from Saharanpur.”
A majority of government projects which used to be completed by public sector undertakings (PSUS) before 2014 are now being handed over to private companies, she alleged.