Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, a day after her party’s rout in assembly election, blamed the “casteist media” for driving away Muslims from her party, and said the fear of a “jungle raj” if Samajwadi Party came to power made its other supporters shift to the BJP.
The BSP supremo, after her party fell to its lowest ever tally of winning only one seat in the current Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, said it was the media’s “aggressive propaganda” showing the BSP as the “B team of the BJP” that drove away Muslims and anti-BJP voters from her party.
“This decision by the Muslims harmed the BSP because the party’s supporters among the upper castes, backwards and other communities were made to fear that the ‘jungle raj’ will return to UP again if the Samajwadi Party is elected to power. That is why these communities went to the BJP,” she said.
“Lies like the BSP contesting elections not as strongly as the Samajwadi Party were also spread. This was widely publicized, while the truth is contrary because the BSP’s fight with the BJP is political as well as ideological,” she further added, stressing that this also took away the anti-BJP Hindu votes, too, from her party.
Muslim community has made a “mistake” by trusting the Samajwadi Party instead of the “time-tested” BSP, Mayawati said.
“Had there been a triangular contest in Uttar Pradesh then the results would have been as per the expectations of BSP. Then BJP could have been stopped from coming to power. In all, the Muslim community was with BSP but its vote went to SP,” she added.
Mayawati urged the leaders and workers of her party not to get bogged down with the results, but to learn from the defeat and take the party forward.
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