Press Trust of India
Lucknow, June 30: In another jolt to BSP, party supremo Mayawati’s once trusted lieutenant and former minister R K Chaudhary Thursday quit the party accusing her of “auctioning” tickets to contest Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
“At election time, tickets are allotted to the person who pays the highest amount,” he said, announcing his resignation from the party at a press conference. In a vitriolic attack on Mayawati, he said since the death of party founder Kanshi Ram, there has been a marked change in her working style and veteran leaders, who functioned with missionary zeal, were not given adequate weightage.
Chaudhary (57) said Kanshi Ram had united different castes under one banner and evolved them into a group which could not be “sold” and due to his concerted efforts, a vote bank was created in all the Assembly constituencies of the state. “But after Kanshi Ram, Mayawati started eyeing this non- saleable vote bank and began selling tickets and BSP became a ‘mandi’ (wholesale market) for ticket selling… Under such circumstances, the party is no longer the mission of social change,” he said.
Alleging that BSP has deviated from the ideology of its ideologues, Chaudhary said capitalists have now come to the forefront. “I have to resign from the party out of compulsion… Many more will leave it in times to come,” he said, adding he will hold a meeting of his supporters July 11 and chalk out his future course of action.
A known Kanshi Ram loyalist, Chaudhary, along with senior leaders Barkhu Ram Verma and Krisna Pal Singh, was unceremoniously expelled by the BSP chief July 21, 2001 for opposing the party’s stand on reservation to the most backwards and Dalits.
He had, however, returned to the party April 12, 2013 after over 11 years and is perhaps the only leader to be reinstated in the party and given the key post of coordinator after a long hiatus. When he was out of BSP, he had floated Rashtriya Swabhiman Party.