BJP would have lost had Mayawati joined hands with India bloc: Rahul

LUCKNOW Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the BJP would not have won the Lok Sabha elections had Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati accepted the Congress’ offer and not refused to align with the INDIA bloc ahead of the polls.

Gandhi’s remarks came during his visit to his Lok Sabha constituency Rae Bareli, the fourth since the LS polls. During an interaction with a group of Dalit students of the ‘Mool Bharti’ hostel, one of them said: “Kanshiram worked for Dalits. After him, Mayawati took his work forward and worked for Dalits.”

At this, Gandhi said: “I agree that Kanshiram ji laid the foundation. Then Behenji (Mayawati) also worked. But why is she not contesting elections properly these days?…we wanted that she contest polls with us against the BJP. But for some reasons, she did not do so. Had all three parties (Samajwadi Party, Congress, and BSP) contested the LS polls together, the BJP would not have won. We would have won had she contested along with us.”

Talking to Dalit students, Rahul said: “There is an entire system, which is against you and doesn’t want you to progress. The system attacks you every day and half of the time you don’t even get to know how it attacks you…Had there not been Dalits in this country, it would not have got its Constitution.”

Noting the contribution of Dalits to the country’s Constitution, Gandhi said Dr BR Ambedkar lacked facilities yet he shook the entire political system.

He asked the Dalits students to tell as to how many private companies who are part of the “big 500” firms, have had a Dalit at its helm? When one youth responded “none”, Gandhi asked him, “Why not?” Another youth replied “because we don’t have adequate facilities.”

Gandhi disagreed and said “Ambedkar ji did not have any facility. He was alone in his efforts yet he shook the politics of the country.”

“You need to understand that the ideology of the Constitution is your ideology. I can say this to you with guarantee that had there not been Dalits in this country, it would not have got its Constitution. It’s your ideology, it’s your Constitution but wherever you go, you are crushed,” Gandhi added. He said: “Every Dalit is Ambedkar.”

Mayawati, however, hit back at the Congress’ “double standards”. In a post in Hindi on X, the BSP chief said, “In the states where Congress is strong or where it has governments, there is animosity and casteist attitude towards BSP and its followers, but in a state like UP where Congress is weak, there is deceptive talk of alliance with BSP, if this is not the double standard of that party then what is it?.

Earlier in the day, soon after reaching Rae Bareli, Gandhi addressed a gathering of party workers in Bachrawan and asked them to maintain a stronghold at the booth level, emphasizing that the BJP government was diverting public attention from real issues.

Attacking the BJP government, he said: “Inflation has risen significantly, and the BJP government is only promoting capitalists.”

Travelling by road from Lucknow, Gandhi first visited the Hanuman temple at Churuva border, where he offered prayers. The temple priest performed an ‘aarti’ for him. After spending some time at the temple, he proceeded towards Bachhrawan. with PTI inputs