In a veiled attack on Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad, BSP supremo Mayawati on Sunday said people with vested interests are playing into the hands of rival political parties and claimed they have nothing to do with B R Ambedkar and his movement.
"Even now, people with vested interests are playing into the hands of rival political parties. They have nothing to do with Babasaheb Ambedkar and his movement. Nor they have anything to do with Manyavar Kanshi Ram's sacrifice and austerity," Mayawati said without naming the Bhim Army chief.
"The truth is that these people are only using their (Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram) names to realise their vested interests," she said in a statement issued by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) central office in New Delhi.
Mayawati's statement assumes significance as it comes on the birth anniversary of BSP founder Kanshi Ram and amid reports of Azad floating a new political party.
Sharpening her attack, Mayawati said, "Kanshi Ram had written a book 'Chamcha Yug' to alert the innocent Dalits, tribals, people from backwards castes and from other oppressed section from selfish and 'bikaau' (saleable) people like these."
Mayawati also said, "Formation of new parties or organisations will not benefit these people, but it will lead to success the policy of divide and rule of the casteist parties and people opposing these sections, thereby making these people helpless, and then they will never be able to stand on their feet."