Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on April 14 said her party would take concrete steps to make western Uttar Pradesh a separate State if voted to power at the Centre.
“You want western Uttar Pradesh to become a separate State. For this, visible and concrete steps will be taken if our government comes to power at the Centre,” she said while addressing her first election rally in support of the party’s candidate for Muzaffarnagar parliamentary segment, Dara Singh Prajapati.
BJP’s candidate for the seat, Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan also supported the issue of Statehood for western Uttar Pradesh in his personal capacity.
Ms. Mayawati advocated for the need for unity and brotherhood among Muslims and members of the Jat communities in the western part of the State, recalling the peace that had prevailed during the BSP regime.
“Communal riots took place in Muzaffarnagar during the Samajwadi Party (SP) regime in 2013. It destroyed brotherhood and unity between the Muslim and Jat communities. During the BSP rule, no such communal incidents took place,” she said.
Mr. Prajapati hails from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community. In Muzaffarnagar, the BSP is pitted in a third-way contest with BJP’s Mr. Balyan and Harendra Malik of the SP.
Ms. Mayawati accused the BJP of designing policies leading to unemployment, poverty, backwardness and migration while pitching her Dalit-centric party as a movement of hope. “The BSP movement is a hope for a large number of poor, underprivileged and marginalised across the State. The BJP gave rise to unemployment, backwardness, poverty and migration, helping the big capitalists to grow at the expense of the marginalised,” she said in another election rally in Saharanpur.
“In the last few years, with the BJP in power in U.P. and at the Centre, the progress of Muslims has stopped to a great extent. Violence in the name of religion has increased,” she added..
The BSP president also targeted the Opposition INDIA bloc for creating social and caste division, cautioning voters against their dirty tricks. Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar constituencies in western U.P., once a stronghold of the BSP, consisted of a sizeable Muslim and Dalit population.
Eight parliamentary constituencies of the State — Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Nagina (SC), Moradabad, Rampur and Pilibhit — were going for polls in the first phase.
