Amid the death of 100 students at a government hospital in Kota, BSP supremo Mayawati has asked for the resignation of Ashok Gehlot, the Chief Minister of the state. A few days ago, Mayawati slammed Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for neglecting the plight of the poor families who have lost their children due to the incompetence of the Rajasthan government.
Reacting to the hypocrisy of Priyanka, BSP chief said, “If the Congress General Secretary does not go and meet the Kota families who are affected by the tragedy, then her outreach towards victims in Uttar Pradesh would be considered political opportunism, from which the public of Uttar Pradesh is advised to stay alert.”
Calling for Gehlot’s resignation, Mayawati further said that the attitude of the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan was condemnable as it has mismanaged the situation of the 100 children deaths in Kota and still remains irresponsible and unsympathetic to the situation.
In the last few days, Maywati has attacked the Congress party repeatedly over various issues. So the question is that, why Mayawati is so harsh on the Congress party, despite the fact that BJP is its major opposition in the state of Uttar Pradesh as well as in national politics.
The reason behind Mayawati’s vociferous attack against Congress is the loss of BSP MLAs to the Congress party. In September last year, 6 MLAs of the BSP joined Congress party under the leadership Ashok Gehlot. These leaders met Congress’ interim Chief Sonia Gandhi in Delhi yesterday, and took formal membership of the party.
Not just in Rajasthan, the Kamal Nath led Congress party poached a MLA of BSP to improve its tally in Madhya Pradesh.
After the incident in the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, now the Congress leaders are looking to snatch Muslim vote bank of Mayawati in the state of Uttar Pradesh. In UP, Muslims have voted in huge numbers for Mayawati’s party, but the community leaders were angry with the Mayawati over the support of Article 370 removal and diplomatic attitude towards the Ram Mandir judgment.
Even before that, in the 2019 general election, Congress party performed well among the Muslim voters, given its pro-Muslim stance on many issues in the last few years. The Congress party wants to win over the Muslim electorate and therefore Priyanka Vadra has been very active in the state over the last few months.
Mayawati sees Congress’ pro-activeness as a step towards placation of Muslim vote bank, which has been traditionally been loyal to Congress party. As the UP assembly election is to be held within next two years, Priyanka vadra’s active participation in the state politics is threat to the standing of the BSP.
The voter base of the Congress party is very similar. Both parties stands for left of centre politics and traditionally eyed over the Muslim and lower caste vote bank. The Yadavs are never going to vote for the Sonia and the upper caste has ditched the party in favour of BJP in the last few years. The non-Yadav OBCs are strongly behind the BJP too, therefore, the groups where the Congress can make inroads are Muslims and Dalits, and Priyanka Vadra is trying exactly that and these are reasons behind the insecurity of Mayawati.
