LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan has said that there is no vacancy for alliance of non-BJP parties
Lucknow:
Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan has dismissed the efforts of non-BJP parties to form a broad coalition to take on the ruling NDA, saying "there is no vacancy" for such an alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
"No, there is nothing as such. There is no such vacancy," he told reporters in Lucknow when asked to comment on the ongoing efforts by some non-BJP parties to form an alliance for the next general elections.
"Is anyone willing to accept Rahul Gandhi?" asked the Lok Janshakti Party president, whose party is an ally of the ruling BJP at the Centre.
"Mamata Banerjee is making her own front. Then there is K Chandrashekhar Rao and Chandrababu Naidu making their fronts. How many fronts will there be? By the time of the elections, these fronts will become defunct and people will vote for (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi," he said.
On the BJP's outreach programme for scheduled caste voters with its leaders having dinner at Dalit houses, Mr Paswan said, "If you are going to someone's place for dinner, where you are invited, where is the problem?"
The problem happens, he said, "when Congress president Rahul Gandhi eats food at a Dalit house and it is dubbed as 'krantikari' (revolutionary), whereas when BJP chief Amit Shah does so, he is criticised. This should not happen."
The Lok Janshakti Party president also slammed BSP chief Mayawati referring to the recent Dalit protests in the country.
While she was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati was the first person to dilute the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by issuing orders in 2007 that before registering an FIR in a case pertaining to Dalit atrocity, the SSP or a senior officer must conduct an inquiry, he said.
Secondly, she also ordered that if any Dalit woman complained of rape, her medical test must be done, Mr Paswan said.
"And now when the Supreme Court is saying the same thing, she is trying to score brownie points. This is unfair and she should first say sorry to Dalits for the orders issued in 2007," he said.
Asked to comment on reports that the Yogi Adityanath government might implement the quota within the quota system before the Lok Sabha polls, Mr Paswan said, "In-principle no one can oppose it. We have formed the most backward classes commission and it will submit its report in three months."
"We are of the opinion since the very beginning that if the government makes special provisions and gives it to the weakest sections of the Dalits who are illiterate and live in very poor conditions and we have to cut our share, then what is the problem? We are ready for this."
Speaking about the controversy surrounding the portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah at the Aligarh Muslim University's student Union Hall, Mr Paswan said: "Will the country ever endorse Jinnah. It will believe in (Mahatma) Gandhi, (Babasaheb) Ambedkar, (Ram Manohar) Lohia, Jayaprakash Narayan (JP)."
The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, who was on a day-long visit to Lucknow, reviewed works of the FCI in the state and said 6,218 wheat purchase centres were being operated in UP.
He said total wheat procurement in the Rabi marketing season 2018-19 was likely to cross 50 lakh tonnes.
In April this year, the wheat procurement in UP has been 19.03 lakh tonnes, as compared to 9.04 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period last year, which is more than double, he said.
"No, there is nothing as such. There is no such vacancy," he told reporters in Lucknow when asked to comment on the ongoing efforts by some non-BJP parties to form an alliance for the next general elections.
"Is anyone willing to accept Rahul Gandhi?" asked the Lok Janshakti Party president, whose party is an ally of the ruling BJP at the Centre.
"Mamata Banerjee is making her own front. Then there is K Chandrashekhar Rao and Chandrababu Naidu making their fronts. How many fronts will there be? By the time of the elections, these fronts will become defunct and people will vote for (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi," he said.
On the BJP's outreach programme for scheduled caste voters with its leaders having dinner at Dalit houses, Mr Paswan said, "If you are going to someone's place for dinner, where you are invited, where is the problem?"
The problem happens, he said, "when Congress president Rahul Gandhi eats food at a Dalit house and it is dubbed as 'krantikari' (revolutionary), whereas when BJP chief Amit Shah does so, he is criticised. This should not happen."
The Lok Janshakti Party president also slammed BSP chief Mayawati referring to the recent Dalit protests in the country.
While she was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati was the first person to dilute the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by issuing orders in 2007 that before registering an FIR in a case pertaining to Dalit atrocity, the SSP or a senior officer must conduct an inquiry, he said.
Secondly, she also ordered that if any Dalit woman complained of rape, her medical test must be done, Mr Paswan said.
"And now when the Supreme Court is saying the same thing, she is trying to score brownie points. This is unfair and she should first say sorry to Dalits for the orders issued in 2007," he said.
Asked to comment on reports that the Yogi Adityanath government might implement the quota within the quota system before the Lok Sabha polls, Mr Paswan said, "In-principle no one can oppose it. We have formed the most backward classes commission and it will submit its report in three months."
"We are of the opinion since the very beginning that if the government makes special provisions and gives it to the weakest sections of the Dalits who are illiterate and live in very poor conditions and we have to cut our share, then what is the problem? We are ready for this."
Speaking about the controversy surrounding the portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah at the Aligarh Muslim University's student Union Hall, Mr Paswan said: "Will the country ever endorse Jinnah. It will believe in (Mahatma) Gandhi, (Babasaheb) Ambedkar, (Ram Manohar) Lohia, Jayaprakash Narayan (JP)."
The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, who was on a day-long visit to Lucknow, reviewed works of the FCI in the state and said 6,218 wheat purchase centres were being operated in UP.
He said total wheat procurement in the Rabi marketing season 2018-19 was likely to cross 50 lakh tonnes.
In April this year, the wheat procurement in UP has been 19.03 lakh tonnes, as compared to 9.04 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period last year, which is more than double, he said.
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