Mayawati mocks Priyanka Gandhi's 'CM face' U-turn; 'don't waste vote on Congress'

After Priyanka Gandhi backtracked on her assertion that she is the Congress' CM face in Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, BSP supremo Mayawati took a swipe at the party. Taking to Twitter on Sunday, the former UP CM contended that Gandhi's decision was a reflection of the poor prospects of Congress in the state. Urging people not to waste their vote on Congress, she requested them to vote for BSP instead.

Mayawati added, "In UP, people perceive parties like Congress as vote-cutter parties. In such a situation, it is necessary to throw BJP out of power and form a government whose leadership works for the interests of everyone. In reality, BSP is the number one in this list."

The BSP chief's comment comes two days after the Congress general secretary linked Mayawati's absence from electioneering to BJP's pressure. Speaking to the media on Friday, Priyanka Gandhi opined, "6 to 7 months ago, we used to think that she and her party are not active now but they will (become active) closer to the election. But we are surprised that she is not active even as we are in the middle of an election. Perhaps she is under the pressure of the BJP government". 

BSP's woes ahead of UP elections

In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, BJP won a whopping 312 seats in the 403-member House, whereas BSP could win only 19 seats. On the other hand, the SP-Congress alliance failed to bear fruit as it could win in only 54 constituencies. The Mayawati-led party is eyeing a comeback in the state by trying to emulate the social engineering formula that propelled it to power in 2007.

BSP secretary-general Satish Chandra Misra had played a key role in bringing Brahmins close to the party as he held a series of rallies projecting BSP's poll symbol 'elephant' as Lord Ganesh. Thus in July 2021, it commenced its outreach to the Brahmin community which constitutes approximately 10% of UP's population by organizing Prabuddha Varg Sammelans. However, most of its sitting MLAs have either quit the party or been expelled for anti-party activities.

This includes Hakim Lal Bind, Vandana Singh, Ramveer Upadhyay, Anil Kumar Singh, Aslam Raini, Aslam Ali, Mujtaba Siddiqui, Hargovind Bhargava, Sushma Patel, Lalji Verma, Ram Achal Rajbhar, Vinay Shankar Tiwari and Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali. Moreover, Mayawati is yet to commence her full-fledged election campaign for the UP polls. On January 11, Misra announced that neither the BSP supremo nor him would contest the election.