Lucknow, April 13 : Amid a row over SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s remarks about BSP founder Kanshi Ram, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Sunday said that the former was suffering from the disease of telling only half-truth.
Taking to social media platform X, the Deputy CM said that if Netaji (SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav) helped Kanshi Ram in the 1991 Lok Sabha polls in Etawah, then the Dalit icon returned the favour by not fielding any BSP candidate against the SP patriarch in Jaswantnagar.
Mounting the attack, Deputy CM Maurya said SP’s darker truth is that on June 2, 1995, its goons tried to sexually assault and murder Dalit leader Mayawati in the state guesthouse in Lucknow.
However, the BJP, which is dedicated to Dalits’ welfare, taught the SP’s “goons” a lesson and saved the honour and life of Mayawati, the leader claimed.
SP is the real enemy of the Dalits and deprived sections of society, he said.
BJP leader Ajay Alok also slammed the SP chief for insulting Kanshi Ram. He highlighted that Kanshi Ram was the second person after Bhimrao Ambedkar to have worked for the Dalits and marginalised sections of the society.
BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya accused Akhilesh of disparaging Kanshi Ram to elevate Mulayam Singh Yadav’s legacy.
“Akhilesh Yadav first insulted the Kshatriya community by supporting the statement of an SP MP who called Rana Sanga a traitor. Now he is mocking the Dalit community’s guide, Kanshi Ram, only to make him look smaller than Mulayam Singh,” Malviya wrote.
The political leaders’ remarks came in response to Akhilesh’s claim that Netaji and socialist people helped Kanshi Ram to win the Lok Sabha polls from Etawah.
–IANS