SP out to unite ‘bahujan samaj’, not dent it, says Akhilesh
Samajwadi Party (SP) president unveils statue of late Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram at a function in Rae Bareli
LUCKNOW Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday said his party is out to unite the ‘bahujan samaj’, and not make a dent in it. Without taking anyone’s name, he warned people against “those who indirectly help the BJP in elections.”
“We are the people who follow the path shown by Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and Manyavar Kanshi Ram. We are not the ones who are out to make a dent in the ‘bahujan samaj’, but those who bind them. ‘Netaji’ Mulayam Singh Yadav and Manyavar Kanshi Ram had started a new kind of politics in the country,” the SP chief was quoted as saying in a press statement at a function in Rae Bareli after unveiling the statue of the late Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram.
Swami Prasad Maurya, once a close aide of Mayawati and now the national general secretary of the Samajwadi Party, had organised the function at the Manyawar Kanshi Ram Mahavidyalaya in Rae Bareli’s Mahamaya Nagar.
The SP chief alleged that BJP contests elections by taking support of others and so one has to be careful of BJP and also of those who indirectly help the saffron party.
Akhilesh Yadav’s statement comes a day after BSP president Mayawati, at a meeting of party leaders here, said, “Rival political parties hatch conspiracies to weaken the BSP in the state, misguide the Dalits and also try to isolate them from the party’s movement. And through the media, news about cracks in the Dalit vote banks are publicised. There is not an iota of truth in these.”
The Dalit community should remain cautious about such propaganda and tricks and also make others aware about these, she had cautioned.
Akhilesh said” “Netaji (Mulayam Singh) had helped Kanshi Ram win the Lok Sabha seat from Etawah, reach the Delhi Parliament and start new politics in the country.”
“Today, there is a need to unite the society. The path shown by Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia in the Samajwadi movement is the same path followed by Bhimrao Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram,” he stressed.
Referring to BJP slogan “sabka saath, sabka vikas”, Yadav said it can be realised only when caste census is done. “Without caste census, social justice and ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ are not possible. With the kind of decisions BJP is taking, for backwards, Dalits and the poor will not be counted. The BJP is handing over everything to private hands and after privatization, how will backwards, dalits get the rights given to them in the constitution,” he asked.
Saying that this fight is long, Yadav said” “We tried, also got into an alliance with the BSP and it reached 10 from zero. Today, all the big leaders of BSP are in the Samajwadi Party.”
Cautioning people, he said the “BJP contests elections by taking support of others and so one has to be careful for BJP as also, from those who indirectly help the BJP, which misleads the public.”
Mayawati had on Sunday alleged that the SP was now trying to politically use the name of BSP founder Kanshi Ram even though the party has a long history of being ungrateful to him as well as BR Ambedkar.
She also referred to the 1995 Lucknow State Guest House incident when SP workers attacked a meeting of her party and how the alliance between the two parties ended then.
“Had the SP run the alliance government as per the missionary thought process of Kanshi Ram, there would never have been any cracks in the alliance, and it would have ruled the country,” she had stated.
Last month, on Kanshiram’s birth anniversary (March 15), the SP, for the first time, organised an event at the party’s office to commemorate the day. Swami Prasad Maurya led that event.
Observers said Akhilesh and SP’s invocation of Kanshi Ram is an attempt to consolidate Yadavs, non-Yadav OBCs, Muslims, and Dalits for 2024 Lok Sabha polls.