LUCKNOW: In the run-up to subsequent 12 months’s Lok Sabha elections, the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh is ready to invoke the notorious ‘guesthouse incident’ of 1995 to woo Dalits. The UP BJP’s Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Morcha will run a three-week statewide marketing campaign beginning on Amedkar Jayanti (April 14) to remind the Dalit group how BJP members ‘rescued’ Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati from staff of Samajwadi Party that day. The incident led to years of bitterness between Mayawati and the SP, and the BSP supremo even talked about concerning the 1995 episode not too long ago in response to overtures made by SP president Akhilesh Yadav to the Dalit group.
In 1995, SP staff reportedly laid siege to the state guesthouse in Lucknow, when Mayawati was holding a gathering together with her occasion MLAs in a room after indications from her that the BSP was quitting the alliance with the SP. BJP chief Brahmadutt Dwivedi is believed to have protected Mayawati from SP staff who had reportedly gone on the rampage.
“We will start a campaign on the birth anniversary of Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar on April 14 and tell Dalits how BJP members rescued Mayawati from SP workers during the guesthouse incident. This campaign will continue till May 5,” UP BJP Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Morcha chief Ram Chandra Kanojia stated on Wednesday.
“During the incident in 1995, our leader Brahmadutt Dwivedi reached the spot and rescued Mayawati,” he informed PTI.
The BJP’s transfer comes after an vital assembly of BSP held in Lucknow on April 2-3 and SP chief Yadav unveiling the statue of BSP founder Kanshi Ram in Rae Bareli on Monday.
Opposition events have stated that as an alternative of beginning this marketing campaign, the ruling occasion ought to work to cease the atrocities towards Dalits within the state. SP’s nationwide normal secretary Swami Prasad Maurya took a jibe on the BJP’s proposed marketing campaign, saying, “In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, SP and BSP have forgotten all the previous things and entered into an alliance. Now, what does the BJP want to achieve by digging up dead bodies.”
He alleged, “No reservation is being given in recruitments. If the BJP is such a well-wisher of Dalits and OBCs then why it is playing with the reservation.”
Congress spokesperson Surendra Rajput stated that as an alternative of operating such a marketing campaign, the BJP ought to cease the atrocities on Dalits.
“A Dalit girl was raped in Hathras and after her death, her body was forcibly cremated by the administration,” he stated, in a reference to allegations over an incident that passed off in 2020.
“Apart from this, there have been many incidents of atrocities against Dalits in Lakhimpur Kheri, Gonda and Banda, but the BJP never talks about them,” Rajput alleged.
