Lok Sabha Elections 2024: BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday (April 23) vowed to carve out a separate state comprising districts of western Uttar Pradesh and fulfil the “longstanding demand” of setting up a bench of the Allahabad High Court in Meerut, if the party is voted to power at the Centre in the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections. Her remarks came while addressing an election rally in support of her party nominee from the Meerut seat.
She hit out at Congress, BJP and Samajwadi Party over the issue of reservation, and alleged that the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP does not want the people belonging to SC/ST communities to get quota benefits.
"We will take positive steps with regards to your longstanding demand of a Allahabad High Court bench here in Meerut like that in Lucknow," she said.
"The central government has not been paying attention to it but when we come to power at the Centre, we will take positive steps in this regard," Mayawati added.
Resolution for separate state
She referred to her government passing a resolution for a separate state which was sent to the Centre, and said that her party has been of the view since the beginning that the western region should be made a separate state for “better development of the region”.
"We had got a resolution passed by the state assembly and sent to the central government but they did not act on it. When our party comes to power at the Centre, your western UP will be made a separate state," she said.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister alleged that the quota facility meant for the Dalits, adivasis (STs) and OBCs in government jobs has not been filled up in the country for years and the quota in promotions for the SCs/STs has also been made ineffective.
"I want to remind the members of the SCs/STs that when the SP was in power in Uttar Pradesh, it had ended reservation in promotions. Will the members of these sections give even a single vote to them and waste it on a party which is bent upon finishing their reservation. The SP does not want SC/ST people to get full benefits of reservation," she said.
The BSP chief alleged that BJP’s “casteist and pro-capitalist thinking and policies” have not aided the development and upliftment of the poor, Dalits, adivasis, backwards, Muslims and other religious minorities.
Telling her voters that in these Lok Sabha elections, the Congress, BJP and their supporting parties have to be stopped from coming to power, she alleged their wrong policies and working style has been tried by all.
She also warned against the "saam, daam, dand, bhed" policies allegedly being adopted by these parties to attain power.
Voting will be held in Meerut in the second phase on April 26, where BJP candidate Arun Govil, Samajwadi Party's Sunita Verma and BSP's Devvrat Kumar Tyagi are in the fray. The declaration of the results will be done on June 4.
(With PTI inputs)
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