Former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and chief of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Mayawati, attacked the BJP on Thursday, accusing it of assisting capitalists and wealthy individuals by taking financial aid through electoral bonds. Speaking at an election rally in Nagpur ahead of Lok Sabha Elections 2024, Mayawati emphasised that her party had not accepted any funds from this plan, reported PTI. 

According to the report, Mayawati expressed doubts over the saffron party`s electoral promises claiming that people are aware that only a per cent of the party`s promises have been delivered. She added that the BJP will not be easily elected to power if the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are not tampered with and free & fair elections are held.

“The saffron outfit and most other political parties run their organisations and fight elections with financial support from capitalists and wealthy individuals, and this was revealed in the data on electoral bonds released by the State Bank of India (SBI). They took money from the wealthy, but the BSP did not take a single paisa via electoral bonds from any capitalists or wealthy people,” she said per the PTI report. 

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister described the BJP`s policies as “casteist, capitalist, narrow-minded, and hate-filled”, implying that these elements will jeopardise the party`s prospects of winning power in the forthcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2024, the report added. Furthermore, she accused the BJP of prioritising capitalist interests over the well-being of farmers and marginalised groups.

Reportedly, Mayawati bemoaned the current government`s treatment of farmers and marginalised populations, highlighting the BSP`s attempts to solve these concerns when in power in Uttar Pradesh.

Mayawati asserted that, whereas the BJP and other parties receive financial support from wealthy donors, the BSP is free of such pressures. She also further stated that BJP, much like Congress, has politicised the investigative agencies. 

Per the PTI report, she said, “Because of the BJP and the Congress`s casteist, sectarian and pro-capitalist policies, the poor, Dalits, tribals, backward communities, Muslims and other minorities in the country have not progressed much.”

She added that several government posts reserved for Dalits, tribals, and OBCs remained vacant and that along with Dalits, the condition of Muslims and other religious minorities in the country is very bad. She backed her statement by citing the 2006 Sachar Committee report and further said, “In the last few years, the development of Muslims and other religious minorities has stopped to a large extent, and even the condition of the poor from `upper-caste` communities is not so good.”

Mayawati urged people to look beyond opinion polls and manifestos to keep the BJP-led NDA and other parties out of power. Furthermore, Mayawati chastised the Congress for ignoring social reformers such as Babasaheb Ambedkar and BSP founder Kanshi Ram, the report added. 

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