Bihar developments a wrong signal for democracy, says Mayawati

LUCKNOW: Terming the developments in Bihar as a "wrong signal for democracy", BSP president Mayawati said on Thursday that misuse of power and official machinery by the BJP leadership posed a serious challenge to established democratic norms. She claimed that the people of Bihar had been betrayed with state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar switching sides from the grand alliance to the NDA. Misuse of power and government machinery by the senior leadership of the BJP for the lure of power is continuously posing a challenge to the democratic norms of the country, she said. "The latest political developments in Bihar after Manipur and Goa clearly prove that future of democracy is at risk under the Narendra Modi government," Mayawati alleged in a press release issued by her party. Terming JD (U) leader Kumar's move of leaving the anti- BJP alliance and joining hand with the saffron party to form the government "as betraying the people of Bihar", Mayawati said people had voted for the secular alliance defying the Modi wave. This mandate should have been honoured, she said. "Whatever has happened in Bihar after Manipur and Goa is the result of misuse of official machinery... To divert the people's attention from wrong policies and corruption, the BJP has launched a drive to prove opposition leaders as corrupt which is most condemnable and dangerous for democracy," she claimed.