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No move to sideline Brahmins: Mayawati

LUCKNOW: Chief Minister Mayawati on Sunday derided attempts to drive away the Brahmins from her party in the aftermath of the Bahujan Samaj Party’s defeat in the Ballia Lok Sabha by-election. She dismissed reports that the moves were afoot to sideline the Brahmins after the party’s performance in the by-poll.

Addressing a late night press conference on her return from Hyderabad, the Chief Minister denied reports attributed to her that following the Ballia poll debacle she had dissolved the Brahmin “bhaichara samiti” (Brahmin brotherhood committee). “When no such committee had been formed, where was the question of its dissolution?” she asked.

Ms. Mayawati said a couple of years ago the Brahmin and other Upper Castes brotherhood committees were formed to foster close ties with the Dalits. However, a few months before the May 2007 U.P. Assembly polls, the Brahmin brotherhood committee was merged with the BSP. The Chief Minister said the propaganda was aimed at misleading the Brahmins as none of the Brahmins occupying key positions in the party and the Government had been removed. Neither had the members of other Upper Castes and Backward Classes on key posts shunted out, she added.

Referring to her January 3 meeting with the BSP coordinators and other office-bearers (where the decision to dissolve the caste-based committees was reportedly taken), Ms. Mayawati said the fact was that the organisational review of the party begins every year in January. The January 3 meeting was called for this purpose.

Ms. Mayawati was dismissive of the Samajwadi Party’s victory in Ballia and said on the contrary the win was due to the sympathy wave. Moreover, the SP had lost two of three Assembly by-elections held last year to BSP, the Chief Minister pointed out. She claimed that the BSP’s base had expanded in U.P., as well as in the rest of the country.

With regard to the Gujarat Assembly elections, the Chief Minister attributed the BJP win to “weak-kneed performance of the Congress”.

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