Lucknow: The Bahujan Samaj Party is “not disappointed” after the recent electoral reverses and will continue to work for the oppressed, Mayawati said here Tuesday after her re-election as the party president.
She was elected again to the top post unanimously at a special meeting of the BSP Central Executive Committee (CEC) and office bearers from all over the country, a statement said.
The party had failed to win a single seat in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections.
“Despite electoral reverses, the BSP is not disappointed. It is stoutly pursuing the goal and welfare principle of ‘Bahujan Hitaye and Bahujan Sukhaye’ (progress and prosperity of bahujans) on the strength of the bahujan samaj,” she said.
She also hit out at the Congress and the BJP, claiming the two national parties are not “true well-wishers of minorities and backward communities in the country.
“Like anti-Congressism in the past, the politics of the country has now become entangled in anti-BJPism whereas both these parties and their alliances are neither true well-wishers of bahujans, Dalits, adivasis, OBCs, Muslims and other religious minorities nor can they ever be so because their thinking about bahujans… is narrow, casteist, and communal,” she alleged.
“This is the main reason why during the rule of both these parties and their alliances, which have been in power for most of the time in the country, there has not yet been the required improvement in the condition of bahujans,” she added.
Mayawati said that because of the Lok Sabha election results “not being one-sided” in favour of any particular party, it creates new possibilities and in such a situation, the BSP has to continue its efforts to secure better result in the future by expanding its mass base on the basis of cadre.
About the BJP-led NDA government, Mayawati said their attitude “does not yet appear” to be “rational and liberal” as demanded by the time because of which it “cannot be called a stable and strong government”.
But she added it is difficult to say this government would be forced to work for real constitutional interest and welfare of the poor instead of “continuing to work for big capitalists and the super-rich”.
“Their model of development and governance has mostly proved to be opposed to the poor, workers, farmers and bahujans. Expecting any particular good from the Congress would continue to be a mirage in a desert,” she added.
Referring to the upcoming Assembly polls in Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi, she said the party will contest the elections in these states with full strength and determination.
She called upon the party workers and followers to put their heart and soul in their respective states in the interest of the BSP movement.
“Dalits or bahujans will have to learn to trust their own power, the BSP, otherwise they would continue to get deceived and forced to live a life of helplessness and slavery,” she claimed.
She assured the party followers that she is ready to make any sacrifice to advance the humanitarian mission of “great people”, particularly those born in Dalit, Adivasi and OBC communities, through the BSP movement, the statement said.
Addressing the party workers here, Mayawati said the movement of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar for self-respect and dignity of bahujans is now advancing and has become so strong that it cannot be misled from its goal whatsoever.
Mayawati, 68, is a four-time former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. BSP founder Kanshi Ram had declared her as his political successor more than two decades ago. She was elected the party president for the first time in 2003, a post that has remained with her ever since.
Two days ago, Mayawati had taken to social media to announce that her retirement from active politics was “out of question”. On May 27, 2018, Mayawati had famously told party workers in Lucknow that she would continue as the party president for the next 20 years until she is too old for the responsibility.
