Mayawati's BSP was not a signatory to the joint statement of 16 other parties issued yesterday.
The BSP has joined 17 other political parties in saying it will boycott President Ram Nath Kovind's address to Parliament scheduled to flag off the Budget session today. Amid a raging farmers' agitation, this is the first time the two Houses are meeting since the Monsoon session last year. The new agricultural laws aside, party chief Mayawati has cited the Centre's "wavering" on people welfare as reason for not attending the Presidential speech.
Sixteen opposition parties, besides AAP, have decided to stay away from Parliament while President Kovind speaks to members of both Houses. This, a joint statement excluding AAP said, was in solidarity with the farmers protesting against the new farm laws.
"The BSP has decided to boycott the President's address in view of the government's failure to fullfil the agitating farmers' demand of withdrawing the three controversial laws and its frequent wavering on issues of people's welfare," BSP National President Mayawati tweeted this morning.
"Also, appeal again to the Central government bring normalcy back in Delhi and other places by withdrawing the farm laws and to not make scapegoats out of the innocent farmers in the matter of the Republic Day violence. In this matter, UP's Bharat Kisan Union's objections are legitimate enough. Attention government," she tweeted in Hindi.
Like the AAP, the BSP was not a signatory to the joint statement issued yesterday by 16 parties, including the Congress, NCP, SP, the Left parties, and the Trinamool.
Thousands of farmers have been at loggerheads with the Centre over the new agricultural laws passed by Parliament last September. Their agitation broke out into violence Delhi on Republic Day, worsening the faceoff with the Centre.
"Whatever happened during the farmers' tractor rally on Republic Day in Delhi yesterday, it should not have happened at all. This is very unfortunate and the central government must also take it very seriously," Mayawati had earlier tweeted in reaction to that day's incidents.