Mayawati re-elected BSP chief Vows to never to stop or bend

Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati was on Wednesday unanimously re-elected as national president of the party in a special meeting of senior office-bearers of the BSP central executive committee, its state units and representatives selected from all over the country.

The meeting was held at the party’s state unit office in Lucknow. Her re-election was welcomed by all the people present at the meeting.

On her unanimous re-election, the 63-year-old Dalit leader expressed gratitude to all her party workers and followers and assured them of her continued commitment to take forward the BSP movement.

Mayawati said she would remain ever ready as usual to pursue the humanitarian missions of sants, gurus and great men, born in the Dalit, Adivasi and other backward classes from time to time. She vowed never to “stop or bend, let alone break” in the interest of the party and the movement.

Mayawati said the excellent work of the BSP governments in Uttar Pradesh was an example on the strength of which the BSP could seek people’s support in the upcoming elections in various states.

Clarifying her party’s stand on the abrogation of Article 370 that gave special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the BSP chief said that Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar had always supported equality, unity and integrity of the country and on this basis, he was not in favour of separate provision for the state of Jammu and Kashmir. “It is for this special reason that the BSP has supported the scrapping of Article 370,” she said.

Targeting the Congress, Mayawati said that had the Congress completed the work of abrogating Article 370 during its long rule, the condition in Jammu and Kashmir would have been better and the BJP would not have got the opportunity to play politics on its pretext. Mayawati also accused the Congress and it’s governments of neglecting the bahujan samaj.

The BSP president said whether it was Dalits, tribals, minority community or the numerous poor and neglected people of the upper caste society, only her party had taken care of all of them during its tenure.

Referring to the soon-to-be-held Assembly elections in the states of Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi, Mayawati said the BSP had to contest elections with full strength in these states against both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress and move forward by first becoming a balance of power.

In addition to this, the BSP president also gave necessary directions and guidelines for the upcoming bypolls to some UP Assembly seats.

Mayawati also made it clear that the party would go it alone in all the 13 Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh where bye-elections are to be held. She also announced candidates for the 12 seats. The candidate for Gangoh seat would be declared later.

The candidates are: Naushad Ali (Hamirpur), Zubair Masood Khan (Rampur Sadar), Abhay Kumar (Iglas), Ramesh Chandra (Balha), Sunil Kumar Chittaurh (Tundla), Arun Dwivedi (Lucknow Cantonment), Devi Prasad Tiwari (Govind Nagar), Rajnarain (Manikpur), Ranjit Singh Patel (Pratapgarh Sadar), Akhilesh Kumar Ambedkar (Jaidpur), Rakesh Pandey (Jalalpur), Abdul Quayum (Ghosi).

Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha in May.

Hamirpur will go to polls on September 23 while the Election Commission is yet to announce poll schedule for other seats.

Earlier on Wednesday, the BSP president expressed serious concerns over mob-lynching incidents in UP targeting women in the name of child theft.

In a tweet, she said, “In Uttar Pradesh, mob lynching in its new frightening form is targeting innocent women. There is terror among the people because of innocent women being harassed/murdered on charges of child theft. It would be better if the state government takes strict legal action against such wrong elements.”

The BSP chief’s tweet comes two days after a 50-year-old woman was thrashed on the suspicion of child theft in Shringar Nagar locality of Etah district.

Beena Devi (50), a resident of Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh, was beaten up by some people on the suspicion of chid theft on Sunday. Four persons have been arrested in connection with the incident. A video of the incident has gone viral on the social media, in which some women and men are seen beating up the woman.