Ramdas Athavale wants to learn from Mayawati to expand party base

MUMBAI: RPI(A) leader Ramdas Athavale said he plans to emulate BSP chief Mayawati's social engineering in Uttar Pradesh to expand his party's base in Maharashtra.

"There are more factions in BSP than the RPI but that is not affecting Mayawati's vote share because of the social engineering and connect with people. I want to do the same in Maharashtra in the next few years," Athavale told reporters here.

At the same time, he also said that Mayawati had no right to criticise him for aligning with BJP because she herself became chief minister of UP thrice with support of the saffron party.

Uttar Pradesh has 24 per cent dalits as compared to Maharashtra which has 9 to 14 per cent, he said.

"The politics in Maharashtra is such that no single party can come to power on its own," he said, adding that he would strive for an all inclusive RPI as envisaged by Babasaheb Ambedkar.

He lamented that there was no unity between the various RPI factions and the leaders had split.

"But we will try to bring as many sections (as possible) of the society with the RPI in the next few years and build a base," he said.

The "Mahayuti" (grand alliance) campaign is getting a good response and the alliance is expected to get 36 seats out of the total 48, Athavale said.

"More than one lakh votes which MNS got in each of the constituency it contested in 2009 will be transferred to the Sena-BJP combine (this time)," he claimed.

The RPI(A) leader also criticised the Congress for "deliberately" trying to spread misconceptions about BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.