Maya blames Cong, BJP for loss of Muslim votes

Accusing the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party of raising the minority sub-quota issue mid-way during the Uttar Pradesh polls for their political gains, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Wednesday said this helped in large-scale transfer of Muslim votes to Samajwadi Party.

Talking to reporters soon after submitting her resignation to UP Governor B L Joshi, Mayawati said 70 per cent of the Muslim votes had gone to the SP due to the minority reservation issue.

"You all know that Congress raised the issue of reservation for backward Muslims for their political gains soon after the Vidhan Sabha elections were declared and this was opposed strongly to by the BJP," Mayawati said.

She alleged that the BJP also tried to attract the upper castes and the Other Backward Classes towards them for electoral benefits.

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"Due to this, there was a fear in the Muslim community that the BJP may come to power. Finding the Congress weak and thinking that the OBCs and upper castes would vote for the BJP, Muslims voted not for the Congress but the SP," Mayawati claimed.

She said there were apprehensions in the minds of Muslims that the upper castes and OBCs would not vote for the BSP and, hence, they voted for the SP.

Except the Dalits, the Hindu votes-particularly those of upper castes-got divided among many parties and the SP gained from this, she said.

"Seventy per cent of the Muslim votes were transferred to the SP," Mayawati said. Mayawati claimed that the Dalit votes did not get divided and remained with the BSP.

"All across the state, the Dalits have voted for the BSP. This is the reason the BSP is number two. Otherwise, it would have been left far behind.... My position would have been like that of Lalu (Prasad) in Bihar," she said.

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The outgoing chief minister alleged that the new SP government will put her welfare programmes in cold storage and take the state backwards by many years.

"Very soon the people of the state will get fed up with the functioning of the SP government and remember the good governance during the BSP rule," she said.

Enumerating the various welfare schemes of her government, she alleged that the Centre's attitude towards the state during her rule was negative. Mayawati indicated that she would work towards reviving her party in the coming days.

"Our party will revive its cadre and work on taking the state out of the Hindu-Muslim mindset," she said, adding that he BSP would also woo other communities into the party-fold. The BSP chief also hit out at the media for keeping the minority sub-quote issue alive by highlighting the issue repeatedly during the polls.