Mayawati trolls opposition for allegedly ignoring BSP while choosing presidential nominee

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Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Saturday hit out at the opposition for allegedly ignoring her party while choosing the opposition’s presidential nominee Yashwant Sinha, and announced her support for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance’s presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu. However, she also claimed to be politically neutral despite her support for Murmu.

“We have decided to support the NDA candidate for the Presidential polls Droupadi Murmu and this decision has been taken keeping our party and movement in mind,” she said at a brief press meet held in Lucknow on Saturday.

“This decision is neither in support of the BJP or the NDA nor is it against the opposition,” she said while reiterating that the decision was based on her “party and movement”.

Based on numbers and support for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies, Murmu, who filed her nomination for the July 18 Presidential poll on Friday, is widely expected to be the first ‘adivasi (tribal)’ leader and the second woman to occupy the post of President. Claiming that her party’s support was also decided due to the NDA fielding a woman from the tribal community for the post of President, the BSP chief, often accused by the Congress and the Samajwadi Party of having a tacit understanding with the BJP, criticised the opposition for not including her party in the consultations for the opposition candidate.

“These opposition parties widely engaged in fake publicity by dubbing the BSP as the ‘B’ team of the BJP. This has harmed us, especially during this year’s assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. They misled an entire community against BSP and in favor of Samajwadi Party. This resulted in BJP’s win. Yet, the opposition has continued with its anti-BSP pitch,” she said while accusing the opposition of keeping her party out of the consultations for the opposition’s Presidential nominee. Mayawati said ‘adivasi samaj’ was an important part of the party’s movement while stressing that her party was free to take its own decision. Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha has been declared as the joint opposition candidate by opposition parties including the Congress, the TMC and the NCP even as NDA nominee Murmu too reached out to the opposition by calling up several opposition leaders including top leaders of the Congress party.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)