UP election 2017: Mayawati asks Muslims to not waste vote on Samajwadi Party

Lucknow: BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday cautioned Muslims in Uttar Pradesh not to split their votes and said Dalits won't be swayed by hollow words. Mayawati told the media here that Muslims would have to be extra cautious in the coming assembly elections and not waste their vote on the Samajwadi Party which she said was on the verge of splitting. "The Samajwadi Party has been divided into two. Muslims have to be very careful. They should not divide their votes," she said. She also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on demonetiation, alleging that he did it to divert the people's attention as "he had failed to fulfill even a quarter of his poll promises", including bringing back blackmoney stashed abroad. "Yesterday's Lucknow speech showed that he (PM) has accepted defeat and that his party is not coming to power in UP. He repeatedly said that these elections will not be fought for victory or defeat and talked about responsibility," the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister told reporters. Taking a dig, she said the faces of Modi and BJP Chief Amit Shah have "lost glow". Mayawati rubbished accusations that she believed in caste-based politics. "We believe in the concept of Sarvjan Hitaya (wellbeing of all) and had allocated seats to all castes," she said, giving a break up how many caste and religious groups got how many seats to contest the last time. She added among the upper caste, Brahmins were given 66 seats to contest, Kshatriyas got 36 seats and other groups were allocated 11 seats. Luring both Muslim and upper caste votes, Mayawati said her regime took care of the upper castes. "Our party advocated finance-based reservation for the upper castes, Muslims and other religious minorities in Parliament," she said. The Congress was in a bad shape in the state, the BSP leader said. And in an obvious reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said Dalits would not be lured merely by taking the name of Bhim Rao Ambedkar and merely announcing schemes in his name. "Don't think Dalits to be naive, they know everything very well... incidents like the murder of Rohit Vemula and lynching of Dalits in Una in Gujarat can't be forgotten."