Akhilesh anti-Muslim, Mulayam in cahoots with BJP: Mayawati

Lucknow, June 24 (IANS) Three weeks after she called off the alliance with the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati has launched a tirade against SP President Akhilesh Yadav by calling him 'anti-Muslim.

Mayawati said that Akhilesh Yadav had asked her to not give tickets to Muslims as it would result in religious polarization.

"But I did not listen to him. When Akhilesh Yadav was the Chief Minister, injustice was done to non-Yadav and Dalits and that is why they did not give votes to the SP. The SP had protested against the promotion of the Dalits also," she said at a closed door party meeting.

Mayawati's statements, incidentally, were not a part of the official press release issued at the end of the meeting but sources later confirmed what she had said.

Incidentally, three of the five MPs elected on a SP ticket are Muslims, namely, Mohd Azam Khan, Shafiqur-rehman Barq and S.T. Hasan.

Mayawati also attacked the Yadav family and accused Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav of "working hand in glove with the BJP" to frame her in Taj corridor case.

The BSP President did not spare Akhilesh and said that she had called him on the counting day but he did not answer her calls. "He should have told me where my party workers did not support him."

She further said that Akhilesh Yadav called BSP leader Satish Chandra Misra after the party announced its decision to go solo in the Assembly by-elections but did not speak with her.

Attacking the SP further, Mayawati said that the SP members have been crediting themselves on BSP's win on 10 seats but the truth, she said, is if the SP has been able to bag even five seats, it was because of the BSP support.

Mayawati also alleged that the SP workers and leaders betrayed her on a number of seats and worked to defeat the BSP instead.

The BSP President said she confronted Akhilesh Yadav with facts on this issue but he did not take any action against the SP members.

Mayawati's diatribe against Akhilesh Yadav makes it clear that the BSP is in no mood to continue any relationship with the SP.

A senior SP leader, while commenting on Mayawati's statements, said: "There is nothing unexpected about her statements. She always uses this kind of language when she falls out with a party or leader. The question is that if she knew all these facts why did she forge the alliance in the first place?"