2 BSP leaders garlanded with shoes, paraded outside party office in Rajasthan

Two Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leaders who alleged corruption in ticket allocation in the 2018 Rajasthan Assembly polls were garlanded with shoes, their faces blackened and paraded outside the party office on Tuesday (October 22) by the party workers.

The BSP workers also made Ramji Gautam, the national coordinator, sit on a donkey and paraded him and former state unit chief Sitaram outside the party office in Bani Park here. “Our workers are upset with the leaders. The workers were active on the ground for five years but parachute candidates from the BJP and Congress were given ticket in lieu of money. BSP workers and leaders are being ignored and exploited,” a BSP worker present there said. He said they held three demonstrations in the state but the leaders did not convey their plight to BSP chief Mayawati. “Therefore, we had to take this step,” he said.

Following the incident, Mayawati has dissolved the state committee of the BSP and lashed out at the Congress. In a tweet in Hindi, she alleged that the Congress first indulged in horse-trading and now it was getting BSP leaders attacked in Rajasthan.

“The Congress party first caused defections among the BSP MLAs and is now getting attacked senior people in order to harm the movement. It is most condemnable and shameful. The Congress is setting a very wrong tradition against the movement and people can give a befitting reply.” “Therefore, the Congress should desist from such disgusting antics,” she said in another tweet.

In September, all the six MLAs of the BSP in Rajasthan had joined the Congress as a block to jump provisions in anti-defection law. The BSP was the largest party offering support to the Congress government, which had been short of a majority since elections in late 2018.