Mayawati calls Rahul's UP poll claims false

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and BSP Supremo Mayawati on Sunday slammed the Congress's Rahul Gandhi over his comment that she had spurned the party's overtures for an alliance. Gandhi, she said, "can't set its own house in order but is taking potshots at BSP". Addressing a press conference in Lucknow, she alleged that former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had tried to defame the BSP many years ago and now his son Rahul was doing the same. She also accused the Congress of stopping her government's work in Uttar Pradesh when she was in power from 2007 to 2012. The Congress was leading the central government at the time.

Mayawati rubbished Rahul Gandhi's claims and said there was no truth to them. "Rajiv Gandhi tried to defame the BSP by saying that Kanshi Ram was a CIA agent. Now, his son is making false allegations that I am afraid of the BJP’s central agencies. There isn't even a trace of truth in this," she said. Responding to Rahul Gandhi's allegation that the BSP had cleared the way for BJP's victory, Mayawati said, "Congress has performed poorly in its battle against the BJP. The party should see its own record in taking on the BJP and then speak on the BSP." “The BJP and the RSS are making India not just 'Congress-mukt' but also 'opposition-mukt' where India will be left with just one dominant party from national to village level just like that of China's political system," Mayawati said. “We are not a party where a leader like Rahul Gandhi forcefully hugs the prime minister in parliament, we aren't a party whose fun is made across the world," she added, attacking the Gandhis and the Congress. 

In the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election of 2022, the Congress won only two seats out of 403 and got a vote share of less than 2.5 percent. As many as 97 per cent of Congress candidates lost their security deposit. The BSP won just one seat and a vote share of around 13 per cent. Nearly 72 per cent of its candidates also lost their deposit in the election, which turned out to be a bipolar contest between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party.