BSP govt will not stop Ayodhya, Mathura projects of UP govt: Mayawati

“In Ayodhya, Varanasi, Mathura and other religious places, public amenity works started by this government in the footsteps of previous BSP governments will not be stopped with a vengeance, and will instead be completed.”

Citing the example of West Bengal Assembly elections to point out that Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress performed contrary to all pre-election surveys, and that such surveys do nothing but misguide people before the polls, Mayawati also said her party will urge the Election Commission to impose a ban on pre-poll surveys six months before all state elections.

Addressing a huge rally in Lucknow on the occasion of the death anniversary of BSP founder Kanshi Ram, Mayawati said her party does not announce announce an election manifesto, but gave what appears to be a sneak peek into the road map ahead of state elections next in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand.

While she took on both BJP and opposition parties such as Samajwadi Party, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is trying to carve out a space in UP, Mayawati asked people to not waste their votes on other smaller outfits, and warned that it will lead BJP back into power.

Warning BSP workers that there will be attempts to damage the party from the time election dates are announced until the last vote is cast, she asked them not to be misguided. The BSP chief said, “We will soon write to the EC and urge them to ban surveys by all agencies whenever there is Assembly election in any state — from six months before the polls until the voting process is completed — so that elections are not affected.”

Slamming pre-poll surveys, Mayawati said, “Before Bengal election results, all surveys forecast Mamata Banerjee trailing. But the results turned the tables on those who were dreaming of coming to power, as TMC won with a big majority. So you should not come under the spell of such surveys.”

With a few senior BSP leaders having joined the SP recently, Mayawati, without naming any party, asked her supporters not to be misguided by “such parties who bring people from other parties to increase their clan”.

Accusing ruling BJP of trying to give a “communal colour” to most issues, she said, “They can turn the elections, eventually, into a Hindu-Muslim issue and take political advantage).”