I got the invitation but boycotted the oath-taking ceremony: Mayawati

BJP wants to contest 2019 polls by polarising voters, the BSP chief says

In the backdrop of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Yogi Adityanath taking oath as Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Sunday alleged that the saffron party wanted to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls not on its development plank, but by "polarising voters".

"BJP wants to contest the 2019 polls not on the issue of development, but by polarising the voters. That is why they have made an RSS man the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh," she told reporters here.

"I got the invitation but boycotted the oath-taking ceremony as the BJP has betrayed the backward castes and Brahmins by making him (Adityanath) the chief minister following the RSS agenda," she added. 

"As the BJP has not honoured any of its promises made in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, it will be banking on its polarisation agenda in 2019," she claimed.

Regarding Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya, an OBC, not becoming the chief minister, Mayawati said, "His (Maurya's) name was put forward to garner OBC support. Had he not been made deputy chief minister, he would have got a heart attack. He has been betrayed and so have been the Brahmins, whose votes were taken by the BJP.

"I have been a chief minister. I know that deputy chief ministers have no role to play. It would have been better if they (Maurya and Dinesh Sharma) were made cabinet ministers with some departments."

The BSP chief also alleged that when Kalyan Singh of the BJP, also an OBC, was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the saffron party had "conspired", so that he could not continue at the top post for long.

Describing the BJP as an "anti-OBC" party, she alleged that it had "let the VP Singh government at the Centre fall" on the issue of reservation.

"This state government has not been formed by honest practices. Besides tampering with the EVMs, it (BJP) has betrayed the OBCs and Brahmins," Mayawati said.