Family feud in Samajwadi Party music to Mayawati's ears

Mayawati cautioned Muslim voters not to waste their ballots by backing the faction-ridden SP

With the sound and fury in Samajwadi Party catching the fancy of its archrival BSP, its supremo Mayawati on Saturday told senior leaders and party candidates to make voters aware of the family feud in the ruling party and not fritter away their ballots to indirectly help BJP.

Fishing in troubled waters, Mayawati convened a meeting of senior BSP leaders and party candidates for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections to issue necessary directives for going to polls.

The BSP supremo, who has been highlighting the sharp divide in SP at her public meetings and rallies, asked senior leaders to make the electorate aware of the feud which did not augur well for the state's development.

"If the ruling party cannot put its own house in order, what can it do for the welfare of the state," she was quoted as saying by a leader who attended the meeting but requested anonymity.

Mayawati has been cautioning Muslim voters not to waste their ballots by backing the faction-ridden SP as split in their votes would ultimately help BJP.

Terming BJP as the "friendly party" of Samajwadi Party, she told party workers today that in order to divert peoples attention from BJP's unfulfilled poll promises, Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought note ban without any preparation and now he is indulging in gimmicks and issuing statements to ward off any adverse impact in the elections.

As Muslims are a force to reckon with, accounting for 20 per cent of the state's population, a lion's share of BSP candidates belong to that community.

The party has announced its decision to give 97 Muslim candidates tickets to wean them away from SP, which considers the community as its major votebank.

In its first list of 100 candidates, there were 36 Muslim candidates, while the second one had 22 nominees from that community. The third list of 100 more candidates released on Saturday carries names of 24 Muslims.

Before chairing today's meeting, Mayawati told reporters

that its purpose was to apprise party leaders of pressing issues and to give necessary instructions to ensure that BSP comes to power with a majority.

"This meeting has been convened to issue necessary directives to the partymen on Model Code of Conduct which has come into force and instruct them to adhere to it in a disciplined manner which is also in the interest of democratic norms, the poor and deprived sections," she said.

"They will also be told about the ongoing family feud in the ruling Samajwadi Party as well as the bad shape of law and order, jungle raj and caste-based discrimination and regionalism in development," she said.

The BSP supremo said that due to the family feud and crisis in SP, the ruling party has seen the writing on the wall that it would not come back to power.

"It is, therefore, favouring alliance with Congress which is on oxygen in UP," she said, adding that by even talking about a tie-up with Congress, SP had conceded defeat.

She said that even if the factionalism in the SP comes to an end due to political and electoral compulsions, it will not be in the interest of the state or its people.

"Party candidates will also be made aware of BJP going back on poll promises, the ill-planned demonetisation measure, and tricks adopted by the saffron party to mislead people," Mayawati said.

She also directed her partymen to hold a series of small meetings in all the constituencies and formulate an effective strategy to win the elections.

Mayawati, who has so far declared candidates for 300 of the 403 assembly seats, expressed apprehensions that Prime Minister Narendra Modi might dole out sops in the Union Budget to woo voters and asked her partymen to remain alert on this count.

She said it was necessary that all party workers up to the grassroot level and candidates should know the new directives of the Election Commission and added that they need to be followed strictly.