BSP supremo Mayawati.
| Photo Credit: Sandeep Saxena

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Wednesday urged people from Dalit, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Muslim communities to be wary of the Samajwadi Party’s agenda in reaching out to them.

In response to SP president Akhilesh Yadav unveiling a statue of BSP founder Kanshi Ram in Rae Bareli on Monday, Ms. Mayawati said the Samajwadi Party had nothing to do with empowering oppressed social groups.

The BSP chief alleged that even during the alliance in 1993, the SP’s motives were not pure. “In 1993, Manyavar Kanshi Ramji formed the SP-BSP coalition with a missionary spirit, but despite Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav becoming Chief Minister from the coalition, his intentions were not pure and was aimed at defaming the BSP and oppressing the Dalits,” Ms. Mayawati said.

“It is in the nature of the SP to do politics of hate on caste lines instead of development and public welfare” Ms. Mayawati tweeted.

Ms. Mayawati’s comments come two days after the public function organised by the SP general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya in Rae Bareli. It was at this programme that Mr. Akhilesh Yadav had reached out to the Dalit community and said that the path shown by socialist icon Ram Manohar Lohia is the same that Bhimrao Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram imagined for the upliftment of depressed sections. Mr. Yadav also called for a broader unity among Dalits, OBCs and oppressed sections.

During the programme, Mr. Maurya raised the slogan, which was famous in 1993, that said, “ Mile Mulayam-Kanshi Ram, Hawa Ho Gaye Jai Shri Ram” (Mulayam and Kanshi Ram met, Jai Shri Ram vanished into thin air). A police complaint has been registered by a Hindu activist against Mr. Maurya for comments that could disturb communal harmony.