General elections 2019: Mayawati attacked PM Narendra Modi's "legacy" as chief minister of Gujarat
Bahujan Samaj Party chief launched a fresh attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi today by calling his "Gujarat legacy a black spot". "PM Modi has been Gujarat chief minister for a longer time than me (in Uttar Pradesh), but his legacy is such that it is a black spot not only on himself, but also on the BJP and a burden on the communal history of the country," Mayawati told reporters, according to news agency PTI.
Mayawati's counter-attack comes a day after PM Modi took a jibe at her and Akhilesh Yadav, another former Uttar Pradesh chief minister whose Samajwadi Party is jointly contesting the national election with the BSP. "I challenge them to show if I have any undeclared assets, farmhouses, or shopping complex, or whether my money is stashed in foreign banks. Prove that I have any property in any foreign land, bungalows worth crores, high-end cars worth lakhs and crores of rupees," PM Modi said during a rally in Ballia in UP.
Mayawati today said PM Modi has "crossed all limits of decency" in calling the BSP her personal property. "The entire country knows that most of those having benami properties and the corrupt are connected with the BJP," she said, adding PM Modi was honest only on paper, just as he "belongs to the Other Backward Classes category only on paper".
PM Modi on Tuesday had said he has never indulged in caste politics despite fighting many elections in Gujarat. "I have only one caste - poverty. That's why I have rebelled against poverty," he said in Ballia.
Caste equations weigh heavily among voters in Uttar Pradesh, which sends the highest number of members to the Lok Sabha, and the battle is increasingly becoming intense as only one round of voting is left on Sunday.
Mayawati also retorted to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's remarks that she was "unfit" for public life.
"His (Modi's) tenure, not only as Gujarat CM, but also as the PM, has been full of anarchy, violence, tension and hatred," Mayawati said. "It can be said that he has been a failure in holding public office and is also unfit. He failed to adhere to Indian culture and Constitution and has been unfit as the PM of the country."