war of words ensues between Mayawati and Priyanka
Lucknow,January 06(HS) Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, who was a bitter critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, has lately turned the spotlight on Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.The reason is not far to seek.
The new general secretary is frequently visiting Uttar Pradesh and trying to make inroad into the state which sends the largest contingent to the Lok Sabha and is politically quite significant. Mayawati had done well in last year’s general elections,winning 10 out of 80 seats.
The number is not small given the fact that her party had drawn zero in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.One may attribute it to alliance with the SP which stands broken now.But that alone could not have helped her gain so much last year.Mayawati would not like the situation to change because of Vadra.
It is for the same reason that she is highly critical of Chandrashekhar Azad,an emerging Dalit leader in the western part of the state.She wants her vote-bank to be in tact.
Her attack on Vadra is likely to grow in months to come because the next Assembly election in the state is only two years away.
Vadra who could not make a mark in Lok Sabha elections knows that if she does not do well in Assembly elections even those who are supporting her at present will go away and her position in the party will weaken further.Therefore, she visits the state whenever there is trouble to gain political mileage.
She had visited Meerut, in the western part of the state, after violence, in connection with anti-CAA stir a few days ago. She had also come to the state capital to meet the victims’ families too, to cite some recent instances.
Mayawati cannot stand all this.Hence, the attack.To her, all this is a “mere drama” to “gain political mileage” .Vadra’s non-visit to Kota where more than 100 children have died had come handy to her.The new Congress leader “should have met the women who had lost their children”. Vadra shot back, ” I have taken details of the issue and a Congress team has gone there to get more information on the matter “.
The two ladies are on different wavelengths on JNU violence too.While Mayawati has demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident, Vadra has met the victims in hospital and bitterly attacked the BJP. Both are making good use of their Twitter handles.
