Mayawati hits out at Akhilesh, Modi

BSP chief Mayawati on Monday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for demonetisation and for what she said was interference with the Muslim personal law.

And targeting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati spent considerable time to explain how votes for the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance would be a waste.

She indicated that supporters of Shivpal Yadav, who Akhilesh Yadav ousted as the state chief of Samajwadi Party, would ensure the defeat of the Samajwadi-Congress alliance.

Mayawati said that if Muslims voted intelligently for her party, nobody could prevent her return to power in Uttar Pradesh in staggered assembly elections beginning on February 11.

In her 55-minute speech, Mayawati tried hard to persuade Muslims to back her Bahujan Samaj Party.

She promised to end the "goonda raj" of the Samajwadi Party, set up a "Vyapari Ayog" Commission for businesses to study their grievances and to unveil special schemes for Agra's leather industry.

The former Chief Minister advised her party workers not to be misguided by partisan opinion polls which put her party at the fourth spot after the Samajwadi Party, the BJP and Congress.

Mayawati said that if Modi saw the size of her rally on Monday, he would be surprised.

Modi's BJP, she added, viewed Muslims only as terrorists.

--IANS

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