Mayawati announces to hold Brahmin sammelan in Ayodhya on July 23

Ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Sunday announced the launch of a campaign from Ayodhya to reach out to Brahmin voters and assured the community that its interests would be safeguarded if her party came to power.

Mayawati announced to hold a ”Brahmin sammelan” on July 23 in Ayodhya to connect with the community. “A campaign, led by BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, will be started from Ayodhya on July 23 to awaken the Brahmin community once again. I am fully confident that members of the Brahmin community will not get misled by the Bharatiya Janata Party and will vote for the BSP in the upcoming elections,” Mayawati said on Sunday.

“The Brahmins will be assured that their interests will remain safe under the BSP regime,” the former chief minister and Dalit leader said.

“The Brahmin community should support her party like the Dalit community which has remained loyal to her party despite BJP’s money power and other methods to influence them,” she said.

“The BJP and Congress used all means to influence Dalits. They used money power, people say, they made false promises and even used media to influence the Dalit community. But the good thing is that Dalits have not been misled by these fake promises. Though we lost the last Assembly election, the vote percentage from the Dalit community has been intact. It has not even gone to the Samajwadi Party,” Mayawati said.

“The Brahmin community is regretting their votes to the BJP in the last elections. The BJP will again make attempts to mislead the people as they begin campaigning for state polls,” the BSP chief warned.

Mayawati’s appeal to Brahmins comes amid reports that the community is feeling marginalised by the Yogi Adityanath government. The BSP was voted to power in 2007 UP Assembly elections and the party had won a simple majority by winning 206 seats in the House of 403.

Mayawati, who traditionally dominated the Dalit vote bank, came to power in 2007 on the back of a unique combination — the majority of 21 per cent Dalit vote coupled with 11 per cent Brahmin votes. In the 2007 state polls, Mayawati had fielded 85 candidates from the Brahmin community.

The BJP hit back, alleging that the BSP chief was “remembering” Brahmins only because of Assembly elections next year and was pursuing “opportunistic politics”.

Reacting to Mayawati’s statement, UP’s Divyangjan Welfare minister and BJP leader Anil Rajbhar claimed that the BSP chief was fighting for her political existence, and the campaign to reach out to the Brahmin community was an “example of opportunistic politics”. Rajbhar also claimed that the Brahmin community would give a befitting reply to the BSP in the 2022 UP Assembly polls. “BSP is remembering the Brahmins because of the election. BSP chief Mayawati does not have information about what is happening on the ground,” he told reporters.

“She will never struggle for the problems being faced by the public, nor will she speak about the farmers. She never moves out (of her house) to know the condition of the Dalits. She does politics from her air-conditioned room via Twitter and social media,” he said.