 "Mayawati demands reservation for upper caste poor")
In the backdrop of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cozying up to the dalits in run up to the 2017 Uttar Pradesh pools, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) President Mayawati on Saturday demanded reservations for poor amongst the upper castes.
Addressing a media conference here, Mayawati claimed the economic condition of the country’s poor belonging to the upper castes was pathetic just like the other deprived sections of society and that the facility of reservation be extended to them.
She urged the Centre to amend constitution to provide reservation to the upper castes’ poor.
BJP has been strategically trying to make inroads amongst dalits, which form the core constituency of BSP.
In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, BSP had failed to win even a single seat in UP out of the total 80 seats as a chunk of her hitherto dedicated voters had shunned her in favour of the BJP propelled by its biggest mascot and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As part of the party’s mass contact programme earlier this week, BJP President Amit Shah had broken bread with members of the dalit community in Varanasi, which is Modi’s parliamentary constituency.
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BJP’s outreach to the dalit community has rankled the BSP, which has been reorganising its cadre ahead of the 2017 polls.
Mayawati termed the breaking of bread by Shah as mere drama on part of the BJP for electoral gains.
BJP has been displaying theatrics with regards to the 125th anniversary of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, wherein the party has announced to construct small memorials and museums at 2-3 places related to his life and times, Mayawati noted.
However, she claimed Dr Ambedkar Memorial spread over 107 acres constructed in Lucknow during her previous regime in UP was still be the biggest memorial dedicated to Dr Ambedkar.
She termed Modi’s two year regime at the Centre as failure on all the fronts viz. inflation, unemployment, drought, foreign relations, social welfare, corruption, black money etc. She alleged the Centre was working for the welfare of capitalists at the cost of the poor and the downtrodden.
Mayawati attacked the Samajwadi Party (SP) government in UP for the alleged breakdown of the law and order machinery and said criminals and mafias were ruling the roost in the state.
“Due to the poor law and order, the UP chief minister (Akhilesh Yadav) has earned the reputation of being the most inefficient CM in the country,” she quipped.