Mayawati calls on UP CM to dismiss ministers with criminal past

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Tuesday termed as "theatrics" and "image building" exercise the merger of Mukhtar Ansari's QED with SP and its subsequent nullification, saying if Akhilesh Yadav is really concerned about law and order he should first dismiss his ministers with "criminal antecedents".

She charged that the communal atmosphere in the state had been spoilt because of an understanding between SP and BJP and that both the parties wanted to give the coming polls a Hindu-Muslim colour by instigating communal riots.

Read: UP CM Akhilesh Yadav inducts four ministers in his cabinet

"In order to cover up its misdeeds, a drama on the lines of the one enacted last time concerning D P Yadav was replayed over the inclusion of QED and its subsequent nullification...

This will have no effect on the people of the state," Mayawati told reporters in Lucknow.

"Such theatrics is not going to help in image building of the head of the Samajwadi Party government... If he is really serious and sensitive towards improving law and order situation, he should first dismiss all his ministers having criminal antecedents and act tough on 'goonda' and mafia elements in the party," she said.

The BSP chief, however, said this is not going to happen as, if implemented, this will "fill all the jails in the state and the party will be left with none".

Mayawati said SP made "full use" of QED in the Rajya Sabha and Vidhan Parishad polls before shunting it out and now Ansari and others will also take their help by ensuring that weak candidates are fielded against them by SP in the coming polls.

On her charge of dismal law and order in the state, Mayawati said the situation was "so bad" that even those who have to uphold law are being "targeted".

Read: Akhilesh has his way, Samajwadi Party revokes merger with Ansari's QED

"The morale of criminal elements enjoying the patronage of SP is so high that they are also targeting policemen and instead of being sensitive towards this, the SP government is doling out compensation to matryrs and freeing itself of all its responsibilities," Mayawati said.

The BSP chief said under these circumstance, the Governor and central government need to fulfil their Constitutional obligations without delay or else people of the state will not forgive SP as well as BJP in the 2017 Assembly polls.

In an apparent attack on SP for its decision take out a "vikas rath yatra" across the state to highlight the development carried out by their government, Mayawati claimed their leaders were struggling for existence and advised them instead to ask the Chief Minister to move across the state on 'rath' (chariot) on the issue of law and order.

To a question on a sting operation by a news channel claiming that an SP leader and BJP MLA were plotting to instigate communal riots in Muzaffarnagar ahead of the Assembly polls, she alleged that the communal atmosphere in the state had been spoilt because of an understanding between SP and BJP.

"Both the parties are in a very bad shape... They want to give the coming polls a Hindu-Muslim colour by instigating communal riots and taking political mileage," she said.

The BSP chief also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior BJP leaders for holding public meetings in the state promising development and eradicating poverty and asked them to spell out as to what they did on these fronts when they were in power in the state in the past.

Recalling the various promises made before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, she said none of them has been fulfilled despite passage of two years of the Modi government.

Exuding confidence that her party was the first choice of the people in the coming elections going by the good record, she said there was a rush in different parties for getting BSP tickets and it was also proved in the recent Rajya Sabha and Vidhan Parishad elections.

"Therefore, in order to check this rush in their respective parties, fake news that our MLAs like Jaiveer Singh and Ramvir Upadhaya are leaving BSP is being spread," she said cautioning her partymen to remain vigilant on this count.

When asked if law and order should be given to Delhi government, Mayawati said though BJP is not in a position to make any claim on this front as it has failed to do so in a "small state" like Delhi, she preferred handing over law and order only "partially" to the state government as the matter concerned the national capital.