Beware of those trying to usurp legacy of B R Ambedkar: Mayawati

LUCKNOW: BSP chief Mayawati has accused the BJP and Congress of attempting to appropriate the legacy of BR Ambedkar to win over Dalit votes, while assuring her supporters that if her party is reelected in UP, she would not spend money on building memorials. She said her government would focus on law and order that had “collapsed” under the SP government.

Addressing a gathering of workers on the occasion of Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary in Lucknow on Thursday, Mayawati said her rivals were trying to frame her in false cases and had moved the SC to implicate her. She alleged that corruption was high in UP and vowed to scrutinise all economic decisions taken by the Akhilesh Yadav government, which she alleged was on an inauguration and foundation stone-laying spree.

“Reject the SP and BJP candidates. Ensure they lose their security deposits. BJP is trying to saffronise campuses. They are creating a controversy over the ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ slogan. There is no compulsion to say it. We in the BSP do not say it, we instead chant ‘Jai Bheem, Jai Bharat’,” she said.

Even if the BJP and RSS would make a Dalit or OBC the prime minister or chief minister of a state, they will not be able to work for the community and would be like bonded labourers, she said.