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Rebels in the Bahujan Samaj Party have attacked their party chief Mayawati for her “extortionist tendencies,” with BSP’s Rajya Sabha MP Jugal Kishore calling her “daulat ki beti” (daughter of wealth).
They allege that the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh has kickstarted her money collection drive for her 59th birthday on January 15.
“Mayawati dalit ki beti nahin balki daulat ki beti hain” (Mayawati is not the daughter of a dalit but of wealth), Kishore said alleging that his mentor demands a price for any action.
"I visited her to seek a party ticket for my son Saurabh, who wants to contest the 2017 Vidhan Sabha election from Kastha in Lakhimpur-Kheri district. But Mayawati demanded Rs 50 lakh for it,” he alleged. “When I expressed my inability to shell out such a huge sum, she divested me of all my responsibilities in the party,” he added.
He claimed that Mayawati told him that it Rs 50 lakh was a concessional rate for dalit applicants, and the going rate for ticket seekers from the upper caste was between Rs 1 and 2 crore.”
“The party had lost track of its mission with which it was constituted by Kanshi Ram ji. Mayawati’s one-point agenda is to mint money,” he said.
Another BSP MLA Bala Prasad Awasthi told mediapersons that party workers have constantly been subjected to extortion by its chief.
A similar allegation was levelled against Mayawati by party leader Rajya Sabha member Akhilesh Das, whom she refused to give another term without a fat price.
Close confidante of Mayawati and BSP spokesman Swami Prasad Maurya sought to dismiss these allegations. “They are making wild statements because she questioned the wealth they have acquired after joining the BSP.”
“Jugal Kishore was a pauper, how did he make crores?” Maurya said.