BSP slams UP government, raises fresh demands to arrest Dayashankar

BSP supremo Mayawati on Thursday ridiculed the Uttar Pradesh government for not arresting expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh alleging he was roaming scot-free in BJP-ruled Jharkhand and giving interviews to media.

“This clearly smacks of an understanding between BJP and the SP government which is indulging in drama over his arrest,” she said, demanding that he be nabbed immediately.

Her comments came after Singh could not get a stay today on his arrest from the Allahabad High Court which fixed August 8 as the next date of hearing.

The Lucknow bench of the high court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to file its reply by August 5 on Singh’s plea challenging the lodging of FIR against him for allegedly using derogatory language against Mayawati.

“It is clear now that UP government is merely enacting a drama of conducting raids whereas media is showing his interviews ... now the SP government needs to get over its understanding with BJP and arrest Singh at the earliest,” Mayawati said in a press release here.

The BSP chief also attacked BJP of targeting her party leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui and demanding his arrest, saying there are others who have also been named in the FIR for sloganeering and alleged it could be an attempt to communalise the issue for taking electoral gains.

On BJP women wing activists holding a dharna in support of Singh’s family members, she said it was aimed at diverting people’s attention and politicising the issue in its favour.

She also termed today’s dharna as a “flop” show and slammed the BJP government at the Centre for “atrocities” on Dalits and other backwards castes in the name of cow protection.