 "Mayawati frustrated over exodus of BSP leaders: BJP")
"In her hour-long speech in Azamgarh on Sunday Mayawati attacked BJP for more than 40 minutes. This proves our point that BJP is fast emerging as number one and will storm to power," BJP state general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.
He said Mayawati's desperation was because of a rise in BJP's graph among the voters and at the same time the "deep dent" in BSP's vote bank.
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"Opposition parties like SP, BSP and Congress are rattled by rising popularity of BJP," Pathak said.
His comments came a day after Mayawati claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi government could start a war with Pakistan to divert people's attention from its failures to win UP polls.
She had said BJP was accepting "rejected maal" of her party, a reference to leaders who had quit BSP or were shown the door.
Pathak alleged that there was "little development" in UP when Mayawati was the chief minister.
On the other hand, the Modi government has "done a lot" for the state, he said, refuting the BSP supremo's charge that for two years Modi did not focus on eastern UP and suddenly before the polls he spoke about reopening of a fertiliser factory in Gorakhpur and setting up of an AIIMS there.
With Mayawati trying hard to consolidate her Dalit votebank, the BJP leader alleged that her professed commitment to the community was a sham as 1,074 Dalits were killed during her tenure, and 30,000 cases of atrocities against Dalits were registered.