M A I N   N E W S

In Jammu, Mayawati woos Muslims
Dinesh Manhotra
Tribune News Service

Mehbooba files papers Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday filed her nomination for the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat in Kashmir which will go to polls on April 17

Jammu, April 1
BSP supremo Mayawati today raked up the issue of Gujarat riots to mobilise support of Muslim voters for the candidates of her party in Jammu and Kashmir. She dubbed BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi as a threat to secularism.

Addressing an election rally, she accused the Congress and the BJP of neglecting weaker sections and religious minorities in the country. However, her specific target was Narendra Modi. She said the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate was a person who failed to control riots in his own state.

“The country will witness more communal riots if Modi comes to power at the Centre,” she said. She exhorted the people to stop Modi’s march at any cost to save secularism and communal harmony in the country.

In an obvious reference to BJP’s attempt to reap political benefit from Modi’s OBC background, she said, “Nowadays, the BJP has been parroting Modi-Modi, but I want to ask what did the party do for the weaker sections while it was in power at the Centre for six years?” She cautioned the people against “dangerous” designs of the BJP.

“The people will reject Congress’ ‘yuvraj’ (Rahul Gandhi) and BJP’s Modi as majority of the population of this country is bearing the brunt of the wrong policies of these two parties,” she said. Her party would play a decisive role in the formation of the next government in Delhi, she proclaimed. The BSP supremo said both the BJP and the Congress were serving interests of the big business houses.