Mayawati Slams BJD & Cong For Ignoring Dalits, Minorities

Bhubaneswar: BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday launched her poll campaign from here by accusing the ruling BJD government in Odisha and opposition Congress of ignoring the Dalits and the minorities.

She also accused the BJD government of lacking the will to fill up vacancies in the reserved category in the State.

A significant portion of her speech was, however, devoted to attacking the ruling BJP-government at the Centre.

She accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of introducing the GST in haste, resulting in a rise in unemployment.

Similarly, she said the ill-conceived demonetisation move has hit small businessmen and traders hard.

“Both the Congress and BJP are corrupt. While Congress was in news for its involvement in Bofors scam, the BJP government has been embroiled in the Rafale deal,” she said.

She termed the ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign of the BJP as a “drama”, saying it is not going to help the party get the popular mandate in the ensuing polls.

Mayawati’s party has been trying to make inroads into Odisha since the 2014 elections, projecting itself as a messiah of the backward community.

In the 2014 elections, BSP had fielded candidates in 113 out of 147 assembly constituencies and polled only 0.86 per cent of votes. For the 2019 elections, BSP has forged an alliance with the SP in Odisha. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also decided to join it.

Former Union Minister Srikant Jena is the coordinator of this alliance.

BSP has decided to filed candidates from Koraput, Nabarangpur and Kalahandi Parliamentary seats and in all the assembly constituencies falling under these three constituencies.