BSP supremo Mayawati says 'only a Dalit' will lead the party after her

Lucknow: BSP president Mayawati on Friday said it will be many years before she needs to name her successor but when the time comes another Dalit will take charge of the party. “I am fit right now and it will take many years for me to become unfit,” the 65-year-old told reporters here, responding to questions recently faced by party general secretary Satish Misra on her “successor”. “My health is fine now, I don’t need anyone to be my successor right now,” the Bahujan Samaj Party leader said. She said coronavirus has been around for two years, but she had remained unaffected. Mayawati said she will make the decision only when her health doesn’t permit her to lead the party. “My successor will be another Dalit who has stood by me and the party with all honesty and dedication even during the most trying times. The party has seen many ups and downs,” she said. She said BSP founder Kanshi Ram too had declared her his successor only when he was not keeping well. Referring to a 24-page booklet issued by Congress for its workers, Mayawati accused the party of trying to malign the BSP’s image. “The Congress party is pained as it is now well known that even for bringing people to its rallies and public meetings, it has to woo them with money and food,” the BSP supremo charged. This also shows that Congress has lost mass support, she claimed. The Congress needed to mention its own shortcomings in the booklet instead of commenting on rival parties, and should first set its own house in order, Mayawati said. She claimed that Congress is finding it difficult to persuade people in Uttar Pradesh to fight elections on its ticket and has to seek financial help from industrialists to fund campaigning. In contrast, the BSP gives tickets even to those who are not financially strong and donations are collected for such candidates, Mayawati said. Unlike the Congress and others, the BSP is not a party of capitalists but of the poor and the deprived and is run with the help of small contributions, she added. “It seems that the Congress is desperate to return to power but the party’s wrong policies, work culture and doublespeak are responsible for its present dismal state,” she said. “They can release as many booklets as they want but it will not be of any help,” she said. The Congress will not gain any support by sitting before Mahatma Gandhi’’s statue, she said in an apparent reference to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s silent protest in Lucknow against the BJP government last month. Mayawati said she did “historic” work for society, including all religious groups, during her tenures as the Uttar Pradesh chief minister.