Mayawati To Skip Opposition Meet Tomorrow, Targets Congress In Tweets

Just a day before a widely anticipated opposition unity show in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh leader Mayawati announced that she would give it a miss in a series of tweets in which she targeted both the Congress and the BJP.

Though the opposition has been raising issues jointly ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Mayawati said Thursday, the Patna meeting organised by Nitish Kumar "was more like joining hands, not hearts".

"In a country suffering from inflation, poverty, unemployment, backwardness, illiteracy, ethnic hatred, religious violence etc., it is clear from the state of the Bahujans that parties like the Congress and BJP are not capable of implementing the humanistic egalitarian constitution framed by Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar," said the former UP chief minister.

"Before any such meeting...it would have been better if these parties, to justify people's faith in them, had come clean on their intentions. How long will 'moonh mein Ram, bagal mein chhuri' last?" Mayawati tweeted, using a popular Hindi proverb that roughly translates to fake praise and hidden intentions.

Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, organized the meeting as part of his ongoing campaign to corral anti-BJP parties and forge opposition unity ahead of the 2024 national election.

Bihar leaders said Mayawati's BSP and two other parties - Naveen Patnaik's BJD and K Chandrasekhar Rao's Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) - were not invited. These parties have been traditionally equidistant from both the BJP and Congress, though they have often extended issue-based support to the BJP.

Nitish Kumar invited various leaders in person, and Mayawati was not among them, said sources.

The meeting is seen to be the first step towards what could result in some joint opposition to the BJP, which scored 303 of 545 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.

The meeting could see the Congress on the same stage as parties that are its direct rivals in states, like the Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Mayawati was not officially involved in discussions for the meeting, though there was an open call to all opposition parties to attend.

In her tweets, Mayawati indicated that she was upset more importance was not given to leaders from Uttar Pradesh, which has the most number of Lok Sabha seats (80) and is key to the victory of any party or alliance.

"80 Lok Sabha seats in UP is said to be the key to electoral success, but it does not seem, from the attitude of the opposition parties, that they are serious and truly concerned about their objective here. Without getting priorities right, will any preps for the Lok Sabha election really matter?" Mayawati questioned.