Seeking to take the wind out of opposition parties' sails, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is planning to hold grand events to mark the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar across Uttar Pradesh and honour Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with the title of "Dalit Mitra".
"On the eve of the birth anniversary of the architect of the Constitution, party workers will take out padayatras in the districts," said Kaushal Kishore, BJP MP from Mohanlalganj in Lucknow.
Kishore, who is also the state president of UP BJP's SC Morcha, showered praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the chief minister for working on the mission of Babasaheb.
"After the formation of the BJP government at the Centre and in UP, both of them have started working on the mission of Babasaheb. A large number of beneficiaries of different schemes of the Centre are people from SC/ST community," he said.
Slamming BSP supremo Mayawati, Kishore said she is frightened by the fact that a large number of people belonging to the SC/ST community are beneficiaries of different schemes of the NDA government.
"She feels worried...and our rival political parties are hatching a conspiracy to tarnish the image of the BJP," he said.
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"Mayawati must remember that it was a BJP leader who saved her (when she was attacked at a guest house in UP). If she is siding with a party, which had once tried to take her life, then she cannot be a well wisher of Dalits," he said, seeking to drive a wedge into the new found bonhomie between the BSP and the SP.
Kishore also said that if the government's intention was to end the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, then it would not have filed a review petition in the Supreme Court which has recently passed an order vis-a-vis the law.