SP fielded dalit, OBC candidates in UP MLC polls despite numbers being stacked against them: Mayawati

Lucknow, May 30 (PTI) A day after the ruling BJP swept the Uttar Pradesh legislative council bypolls, BSP supremo Mayawati on Tuesday lashed out at the Samajwadi Party for fielding dalit and OBC candidates in the polls despite knowing that the numbers were stacked against them.

She also accused the Akhilesh Yadav-led party of ignoring these sections when it was in power.

The saffron party had sailed comfortably in the legislative council bypolls held on Monday with both its candidates Manvendra Singh and Padmasen Chowdhary posting comfortable wins over Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Ram Jatan Rajbhar and Ramkaran.

“In the by-elections held yesterday for two seats of the UP Legislative Council, despite the defeat being certain, the SP fielded Dalit and OBC candidates in the election and got them defeated, while ignoring them when they (SP) were in power… proves that the conspiracies of the SP towards these classes has not changed even a bit,” Mayawati tweeted in Hindi.

Cautioning these backward sections against the nefarious designs of the Samajwadi Party, she said in another tweet, “Dalits, other backwards and marginalised people have suffered a lot due to such narrow and hateful politics of SP and their governments.

“That’s why there is a dire need for these sections to be always careful to avoid such losses in future, this is the appeal of the BSP,” she said.

The opposition unity suffered a blow in the MLC bypolls with Congress legislators not casting their votes, while the lone BSP MLA could not make it to Lucknow to exercise his voting rights.

Based on its numerical strength in the legislative assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was comfortably placed to secure victory for both its candidates. The SP had entered into the fray at the last moment apparently to give a message that it would not give a walkover to the ruling party.