Mayawati wasting public money under guise of dalit uplift: Gadkari

Addressing a rally of scheduled tribes and dalits in Sonbhadra district,Gadkari said,“Mayawati is spending huge sums on the construction of memorials and statues in the name of uplift of dalits. In fact,by doing so,she is misleading them.”

Gadkari said people in Sonbhadra were deprived of quality education,roads and power. He said the farmers were not getting fertilizers,seeds,power and water for irrigation. “Power plants in Sonbhadra generate thousands of megawatt of power but a large population here is not getting it,” Gadkari said.

Holding locals responsible for their miserable condition,BJP leader said they never agitated for their rights.

“The money spent on statues here could have been used for improvement of the living standard of the poor in UP,” he said. Alleging corruption in Noida land allotment,Gadkari said the BSP was following UPA in corruption.

He said people had voted Mayawati to power to get rid of poor law and order of the SP government. “But now Mayawati government has overtaken Mulayam Singh government in ‘Gundaraj’,“ he said.

Gadkari said if the BJP came to power,it would ensure the tribals and scheduled castes get their rights.

Senior party leader Uma Bharti said the BJP gives due respect to poor tribal.”We all have gathered here for pride and rights of poor tribals and schedule castes,” she said. Party national vice-president Kalraj Mishra said the BSP and SP governments had harassed poor tribals by implicating them in fake cases.

State BJP president Surya Pratap Shahi said the tribals were deprived of the right to contest in panchayat elections and said the BJP,if came to power,would ensure the tribals get their rights back.