Addressing her very first public rally ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Mayawati, president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), asserted that she was not “missing in action”, as her opponents would like voters to believe. Instead, she pitched a reconstructed “BSP 2.0” where she’s very much in charge, and warned media that the 2022 Assembly polls could be a re-run of 2007, in which the BSP was completely ignored as a contender.
“Is baar, kuch jaatiwadi media, humari party ka manobal girane main yeh keh kar koyi kasar nahi choti hai ki unki neta kahin nazar nahi aa rahi hai. (A section media, who are ‘casteist’, have been spreading the news with the aim to demoralise BSP workers that the BSP leader is not visible anywhere),” she said, 20 minutes into her speech.
