Lok Sabha Election 2024, Phase 1: Voting on 102 seats underway
In the first phase of Lok Sabha elections 2024, as many as 102 constituencies spanning across 21 states and Union Territories will elect their new MPs.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today disclosed that his party had proposed to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati an alliance between the two parties for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections but she refused to contest the polls ostensibly because of the fear of the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Pegasus.
”We sent her (Mayawati) a message suggesting her alliance and the chief ministership. She did not even talk to us,” he said while releasing a book titled ‘The Dalit Truth’ in the Jawahar Bhavan in New Delhi.
Rahul said he had immense respect for BSP founder Kanshi Ram who launched the party with his sweat and blood to enable the Dalits to raise their voice even though the party caused immense damage to the Congress in Uttar Pradesh. ”Today she (Mayawati) says she won’t fight to raise the voice of the Dalits…why? Simply because of the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and the Pegasus,” he claimed.
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Attacking the Sangh Parivar, he said today all the institutions in the country were in the hands of the RSS. Constitution, he said, was a weapon given to the people of India by Babasaheb Ambedkar. ”Constitution is a weapon but without institutions, it has no meaning,” he said.
During his address, Rahul also shared some of his thoughts on the plight of the Dalits. ”I cannot accept that there are people in my country who refuse to touch other people. I don’t understand how a human being comes to this conclusion,” he said.
The Congress leader said; ”If you are in politics, you will see that there are many such politicians who are only interested in power. Wake up in the morning and start wondering how they will get power. They go to sleep doing the same till night.”
He said he himself was born in the middle of power which, for him, was a strange disease he was not interested in. ”I try to understand my country…I am like a lover who wants to understand…because my country has given me its love without any reason. I have a debt.”
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