Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Chief Mayawati announced that the president of the Telangana unit, R.S. Praveen Kumar, will be the chief ministerial candidate of the party, IANS reported. Addressing a public meeting in Hyderabad on Sunday, she declared that if the BSP is voted to power in Telangana, Praveen Kumar, a former IPS officer, will be the Chief Minister.
She said that after taking voluntary retirement from the Indian Police Service (IPS), Praveen Kumar had been working with determination to strengthen the party in Telangana. She hoped that he would take very good care of people like the BSP did in Uttar Pradesh when it was in power.
The BSP chief urged the people to bring her party to power in Telangana in the elections scheduled in the next few months. She said if SCs, STs, OBCs, Muslims, and other minorities and other weaker sections want a life of dignity and want to liberate themselves from oppression, they should bring the BSP to power.
Taking a dig at Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for his call for amending the Constitution, the BSP leader appealed to people to throw Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) out of power. She said the government, which is talking about changing the Constitution drafted by Babasaheb Ambedkar, should be thrown out of power.
The BSP leader also alleged that in states where the BJP is growing strong, conspiracies are being hatched to split the votes of Dalits and weaker sections by floating smaller parties. Mayawati also took potshots at Chief Minister KCR for allegedly trying to copy the BSP with the promise of land for Dalits. "He promised 3 acres of free land but did not implement it," she said, as quoted by IANS.
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She also alleged that, for the sake of votes, KCR named the State Secretariat after the Babasaheb Ambedkar government building and installed his tallest statue, IANS reported.
She recalled that when the Telangana people were fighting for their own state, the BSP was the first party to raise its voice in Parliament in support, and it also supported the Bill brought in Parliament for the creation of the state.
Mayawati said that the weaker sections, Dalits, tribals, backward, youth, and unemployed in Telangana were hit by irregularities in recruitment. She alleged that the state government is trying to suppress the voice raised against these irregularities.
The BSP leader also questioned the silence of the Chief Minister over the release of a convict in the murder of Dalit IAS officer G. Krishnaiah.
She was referring to the release of former MP Anand Mohan Singh by the Bihar government.
The gangster-turned-politician, who had instigated the bureaucrat's lynching in 1994 and was sentenced to life imprisonment, was recently released from jail after the Bihar government tweaked the rules. Mayawati said the BSP raised its voice against the release of the convict and demanded justice for the family of the slain officer.