"Misuse Of Government Machinery": Mayawati Slams BJP Over UP Civic Polls

A day after results of the urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh were announced, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati Sunday accused the ruling BJP of misusing government machinery, and said her party will not sit silently over it.

Refuting the allegations, spokesperson of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh Harishchandra Srivastava hit out at the BSP leader and said she is refusing to accept the truth that her party has been rejected by the people.

The BJP on Saturday swept the mayoral elections in the state, winning the posts in all the 17 municipal corporations in Varanasi, Lucknow, Ayodhya, Jhansi, Bareilly, Mathura-Vrindavan, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Aligarh, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad, Agra, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Firozabad and Meerut.

In a series of tweets in Hindi on Sunday, Mayawati said, "The BSP is not going to sit silently over the BJP's misuse of government machinery." She also accused the ruling party of using any means ('saam', 'daam', 'dand', 'bhed') at its disposal, and said, "When the time comes, the BJP will definitely face the consequences." Thanking people for extending support to her party, the BSP chief said, "Gratitude and thanks to the people for reposing faith in the BSP and voting for its candidates despite facing a host of adverse circumstances. Had this election been free and fair, the results would have been something else. If the mayoral elections were conducted using ballot papers, the BSP would have won." The BSP had fielded mayoral candidates on all the 17 seats in the state but none could register a win.

"Whether it's the BJP or the SP, both parties are equally adept at winning elections through misuse of power. This is why the ruling party often manages to secure more seats through manipulation, and this election was no different. It is a matter of great concern," Mayawati added.

Earlier, addressing a press conference in Lucknow on April 10, Mayawati had batted for the use of ballot papers in the elections for mayors and corporators of municipal corporations in Uttar Pradesh.

Countering Mayawati's allegations, Srivastava told PTI, "BSP chief Mayawati ji's tweet is a reflection of her utter frustration, in which she has refused to respect the mandate." Instead of acknowledging that the BSP has been rejected by the people, she has called the BJP's victory a result of manipulation, he said, adding that Mayawati was shying away from the truth.

Srivastava also thanked the people of Uttar Pradesh for choosing good governance and development of the BJP over caste-based politics and corruption of the BSP, SP and the Congress.

In the 2017 municipal elections in the state, 14 out of 16 mayoral seats were won by the BJP, while the BSP had registered wins in Aligarh and Meerut.

This time in Meerut, the BJP's Harikant Ahluwalia defeated his nearest rival Anas of the AIMIM. The SP's Seema Pradhan stood third, while the BSP stood fourth.

In Aligarh, BJP candidate Prashant Singhal defeated his nearest rival Zamir Ullah Khan of the SP, while the BSP's Salman Shahid finished third.

Besides winning all the 17 mayoral seats in the Uttar Pradesh urban local body polls, the BJP has also bagged 813 out of 1,420 seats in the corporators category.

After the bulk of the results were announced on Saturday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath thanked the people and congratulated BJP workers for forming a "triple-engine government" following the party's "biggest victory" in the urban local body polls.

The party's candidates won in Varanasi, Lucknow, Ayodhya, Jhansi, Bareilly, Mathura-Vrindavan, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Aligarh, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad, Agra, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Firozabad and Meerut. Of these municipal corporations, the BJP had repeated its candidates only in Kanpur City, Bareilly and Moradabad.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)