Mayawati plays divide and woo

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Monday claimed that Mulayam Singh Yadav had insulted his younger brother Shivpal Yadav, playing on the differences within the ruling family as she appealed to people not to waste their votes on a divided party. If the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister's apparent show of sympathy came as a surprise, her choice of location stood out too. Mayawati was speaking at a rally in Etawah, Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam's home district. "Mulayam has been insulting Shivpal to establish his son and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in the Samajwadi Party," Mayawati said. Earlier, Mayawati had often said she would put in jail wrongdoers in the Samajwadi, including Shivpal, when she came to power. Akhilesh and Shivpal had been locked in a power tussle last year before the younger man eventually wrested control of the party at a convention on January 1, where he took over as Samajwadi national chief from his father and removed his uncle as the head of the state unit. But there are many who believe that Mulayam secretly stood by his son during the power struggle. Although he has spoken out against his son and in favour of his brother, most of his actions suggest he supports Akhilesh. Mayawati's comments came days after some Shivpal loyalists - including Ambika Chaudhay and Narad Rai who were removed from Akhilesh's cabinet in September -joined the BSP. Asked recently whether she would also welcome Shivpal into her party, the BSP boss had said: "I can think about it if he approaches me." Shivpal has denied any such possibility. Shivpal is contesting as a Samajwadi candidate from Jaswant Nagar in Etawah district. A star campaigner for the party till the 2014 parliamentary elections, he has been confined to one Assembly seat now. "The traditional vote of the SP will be divided between the uncle and the nephew as both are working against each other. I appeal to the people not to spoil their votes," Mayawati said. She was referring to the Yadavs who account for over 12 per cent of the votes in the three dozen Assembly constituencies in and around Etawah, where polling would be held on February 19, the third leg of the seven-phase elections in the state. "I also appeal to minority voters not to waste their votes on the SP because the communal BJP can win in that case," Mayawati added. Mayawati also responded to Akhilesh's claim at election rallies that the BJP and the BSP together could try to form the government if the Samajwadi didn't have the numbers. "The SP has forged a pre-poll alliance with the Congress on the direction of the BJP. The SP... and Prime Minister Narendra Modi... have been hatching a conspiracy to silence me," she said. Later, in Lucknow, the BSP boss said Modi's politics was unbecoming of a Prime Minister. "The way the PM makes false allegations of corruption against the BSP doesn't suit his position. He stoops to this level for political mileage," she said. At a rally today in Lakhimpur Kheri, Modi had said there was a scam behind the divestment of several sugar mills in the state between 2007 and 2012, when Mayawati was in power. "The Samajwadi had promised during the 2012 Assembly election campaign that an inquiry would be conducted against Mayawati if they came to power. But no probe was done after Akhilesh took over as CM," Modi said.