Mayawati is holding her second Uttar Pradesh election rally in Azamgarh.
Azamgarh:
After the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had retained Azamgarh, dumping his traditional turf Mainpuri. But on Sunday, thousands had gathered at Azamgarh's ITI ground to hear Mayawati. The BSP chief did not disappoint. Not only did she have a message for Muslims - over 30 per cent of the constituency's electorate - and the Dalits, she had much to say about the how both the BJP and the SP had disappointed the electorate.
"Every day, terms like Gau raksha, Hindu Rashtra etc are poisoning the discourse. In the name of terrorism, people, especially Muslims, are being targeted. It is something we totally condemn," Ms Mayawati said.
"The BJP has discriminated against Muslims and all minorities ever since they came to power. Look at Muzaffarnagar, Dadri, Bulandshahr and Mathura. Can you forgive these things?" she said.
The Dalits, she added, "don't want only sympathy from the Prime Minister, they also want action against those responsible for atrocities against them."
She also took on Delhi's three-time Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit -- the Congress candidate for the top job in Uttar Pradesh -- saying: "The Congress has sent an elderly Brahmin leader to up as cm candidate. It is the same leader who totally spoilt Delhi in the last few years."
The Congress, she said, is now promising 10 per cent reservation for upper castes. "This is all opportunism. If they had to do it, they could have done it in all the years they ruled at the centre. The BSP has always demanded all benefits for all classes."
In the last few months, a string of senior leaders have left, accusing Mayawati of selling party tickets for the upcoming UP elections. The last high-profile deserter was Brahmin leader Brajesh Pathak, a former Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha member.
This was the BSP chief's second big rally - a week after she launched her election campaign from Agra.
The choice of Purvanchal was deliberate - it had voted largely for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. In the last assembly polls, it had given a majority of the region's 10 seats to the SP.
"I want to ask the people of Purvanchal, Modi had said the poor and weaker sections of society would get cheaper ration. Has that happened?" she said. The crowd roared a "no". "The people of Purvanchal," she continued, "gave a lot of seats to the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. If their (the BJP's) intentions were clear, they would have given back half of what they got to the region."
"Every day, terms like Gau raksha, Hindu Rashtra etc are poisoning the discourse. In the name of terrorism, people, especially Muslims, are being targeted. It is something we totally condemn," Ms Mayawati said.
"The BJP has discriminated against Muslims and all minorities ever since they came to power. Look at Muzaffarnagar, Dadri, Bulandshahr and Mathura. Can you forgive these things?" she said.
The Dalits, she added, "don't want only sympathy from the Prime Minister, they also want action against those responsible for atrocities against them."
Mayawati is courting the Muslim population in Azamgarh.
The Congress, she said, is now promising 10 per cent reservation for upper castes. "This is all opportunism. If they had to do it, they could have done it in all the years they ruled at the centre. The BSP has always demanded all benefits for all classes."
In the last few months, a string of senior leaders have left, accusing Mayawati of selling party tickets for the upcoming UP elections. The last high-profile deserter was Brahmin leader Brajesh Pathak, a former Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha member.
This was the BSP chief's second big rally - a week after she launched her election campaign from Agra.
The choice of Purvanchal was deliberate - it had voted largely for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. In the last assembly polls, it had given a majority of the region's 10 seats to the SP.
"I want to ask the people of Purvanchal, Modi had said the poor and weaker sections of society would get cheaper ration. Has that happened?" she said. The crowd roared a "no". "The people of Purvanchal," she continued, "gave a lot of seats to the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. If their (the BJP's) intentions were clear, they would have given back half of what they got to the region."
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