Congress Wanted To "Finish Off" My Party In Madhya Pradesh: Mayawati

BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday accused the Congress of conspiring against her party by offering it less seats. This, she indicated, was one of the main reasons behind not forming an alliance between her party and the Congress for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly election.

Madhya Pradesh is scheduled to go to polls on November 28 and results will be declared on December 11.

"The Congress is on weak ground in Madhya Pradesh. That is why it had proposed an alliance with the BSP in the state. (But) under a planned strategy and conspiracy, the Congress wanted to finish off the BSP and offered (it) very low number of seats (in the alliance)," Ms Mayawati said on Tuesday.

She added that the Bahujan Samaj Party had a strong base in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and several other states, but after being offered less seats (by the Congress), her party decided to go it alone in Madhya Pradesh.

She did not specify the number of seats the Congress had offered the BSP for the Madhya Pradesh polls.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister was addressing a rally at the BHEL Dussehra Maidan in Bhopal.

She went on to say that a desperate and nervous Congress is now accusing the BSP for the failure to cement an alliance between the two parties.

Attacking the Narendra Modi government, Ms Mayawati claimed people as well as traders were unhappy with the way GST and demonetisation were implemented without prior preparation. She claimed the two exercises had adversely affected the country's economy, and further poor fiscal policies of the Centre led to a spike in poverty, unemployment and inflation.

She also slammed the Centre for skyrocketing fuel prices.

The BSP chief accused both the Congress and BJP of ignoring the poor and making policies that benefit capitalists.

She said that reservations, which were given to people due to the efforts of BR Ambedkar, was being gradually eliminated by parties, which she claimed have a "casteist" mentality.

She accused the Congress and the BJP of being responsible for the Mandal Commission report not being implemented. She also said that BR Ambedkar was bestowed Bharat Ratna (posthumously in 1990) by the government of Prime Minister VP Singh and not by the Congress.