BJP says Mayawati depressed as BSP leaders are joining it

Hitting back, BJP today said BSP supremo Mayawati was depressed after "able and honest" leaders of her party were deserting her and joining the saffron outfit, which had prompted her to make "irritating" remarks.
BJP's counter attack came after Mayawati claimed in Azamgarh that the Modi government could start a war with Pakistan to divert people's attention from its "failures" ahead of the UP Assembly polls. She also said BJP was accepting leaders rejected by her party.
"The trioka of Congress, SP and BSP has been rattled by the rising popularity of BJP. BSP supremo Mayawati has made certain irritating remarks out of this depression.

"One after another able and honest BSP leaders are deserting her sinking ship to join BJP. That is why she is making graceless comments against them," BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said in a statement.
He also referred to her close aide Naseemuddin Siddiqui's controversial remarks aimed at the wife and daughter of expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh and Mayawati's defence of him to accuse her of shedding crocodile tears for women's empowerment.
While there was "little development" in UP when she was the chief minister, the Modi government has "done a lot", including opening fertiliser factory and AIIMS, besides distributing LPG connections to poor households, for the state, Sharma claimed.

With Mayawati working "overtime" to consolidate her Dalit votebank, he alleged that her professed commitment to the community was a sham as 1,074 Dalits were killed during her tenure and 30,000 cases of atrocities against Dalits were registered.