Lagatar24 Desk
Lucknow, June 25: Mayawati, the leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), declared on Saturday that she would back Droupadi Murmu, the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The BSP “has identified the tribal community as an important part of our movement,” Mayawati said on the decision to support Murmu, a tribal leader.
The BSP leader further criticised the opposition for choosing Yashwant Sinha as president without first consulting her party. “Sharad Pawar, the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, and Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of Bengal, neither invited the BSP nor other parties to the initial meeting. The opposition merely pretended to seek agreement on the presidential candidate,” she said.
The BSP, according to Mayawati, was independent to make a choice regarding the presidential elections because the opposition kept up their casteist campaign against her party.
“The BSP is the only national party with a Dalit leadership. We are not an industrialist-friendly party or one that supports the BJP or the Congress. On the other side, we make decisions that benefit the oppressed, and when a party makes a decision that benefits a particular caste or group of people, we support that party regardless of the results,” she said.
