Two BSP leaders, Ramji Gautam, the national coordinator, and Sitaram, former in-charge of the party’s state unit, faced the flak of BSP workers for giving election tickets to parachute candidates from the BJP and Congress in exchange of money, a party worker alleged.
Image Courtesy: millenniumpost.in
Leaders of the BahujanSamaj Party (BSP) leaders in Rajasthan were garlanded with shoes, faces blackened and paraded outside the party office in Banipark on Tuesday by their own party workers, who alleged corruption in ticket allocation, PTI reported. Party supremo Mayawati, however, blamed the Congress for the incident.
It was the national coordinator of the BSP, RamjiGautamand Sitaram, former in-charge of the party’s state unit, faced the flak of BSP workers for giving election tickets to parachute candidates from the BJP and Congress in exchange of money, a party worker alleged. Gautam was also made to sit on top of a donkey and was paraded outside the party office.
See the ANI tweet reporting the incident here.
“Our workers are upset with the leaders. The workers have worked on the ground for five years but they have given ticket to parachute candidates, who are of the BJP and the Congress, in lieu of money. BSP workers and leaders are being ignored and exploited,” a BSP worker present there told PTI.“We have held three demonstrations here but the leaders have not conveyed our plight (to BSP chief Mayawati).
Therefore, we had to take this step,” he added.
BSP chief Mayawati, however, blamed the Congress for the incident, alleging that the party first indulged in horse-trading and now it is organising attacks on BSP leaders in the state.
“Congress party first broke the Congress MLAs in Rajasthan and now attacking the senior leaders to hurt our movement in the state which is condemnable and very shameful. Congress is putting across a very wrong legacy against the Ambedkarite movement, and people can give a tit-for-tat reply against that,” she said in a tweet in Hindi.
“Therefore, the Congress party should not engage in such shameful acts,” she added.
See Mayawati’s tweet here.
The relations between the BSP and Congress in Rajasthan had taken a hit in September when six BSP MLAs had joined the Congress. In the Assembly elections held last year, the Congress had won 100 seats in the 200 seat state Assembly and had formed the government with the support of 6 BSP MLAs and 12 independents, who also joined the Congress later.