'UP Will Decide Who Will be PM': Mayawati Urges Cadre to Ensure Victory of Gathbandhan Candidates

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Tuesday appealed to workers of her party and the Samajwadi Party to forget their past differences to fight the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

On Saturday, the BSP and the SP announced an alliance in Uttar Pradesh to unitedly fight the BJP. “Forget past differences and ensure victory of all joint candidates of the SP and the BSP. This will be my ideal birthday gift," Mayawati said at a press conference here on the occasion of her 63rd birthday.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav later visited the BSP chief and presented her with a bouquet and a shawl on her birthday. Mayawati said Uttar Pradesh, which is India's largest state, will decide who will be the next Prime Minister.

“UP decides who will come to power at the Centre and who will be the prime minister. The BSP and the SP must fight together, setting aside their differences and ensure the victory of all 'gathbandhan' (alliance) candidates," she said, apparently hinting at her prime ministerial ambitions.

The BSP president, who had spelt out the reasons of keeping the Congress out of the alliance on Saturday, did not spare it, asking the party to understand that “popular declarations will not help them anymore".

“Fingers have already been raised at the Congress government over the loan waiver scheme in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, and people are asking as to why the cut off dates for it has been fixed for March 31 when it should have been December 17, 2018, when the new government took over," she said.

“Also, these governments are only waiving loans up to Rs 2 lakh and this will not help farmers in any manner," Mayawati said.

She called for one-time waiver of the entire loan which would check farmers' suicides as well as resolve all their problems. Asking the state and central governments to prepare a long-term plan for resolving the problems of farmers, she said the farmers believe that implementation of the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations will help overcome their plight.

Favouring 10% reservation for the poor among the upper castes, Mayawati said Muslims and other religious minorities will not have much benefit till the narrow-minded thinking continues.