Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Saturday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his statements in which he claimed to belong to the "most-backward caste" community.
The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister alleged that Modi had moved his caste to the list of the Other Backward Castes for "political gains".
“Narendra Modi is from the upper caste, but during his time as chief minister of Gujarat, he got his community enlisted under the OBC category for political gains,” she said at a press conference at her Mall Avenue residence in Lucknow.
Contrary to Modi’s allegations, Mayawati and her party workers have never called him “neech” (backward), she added.
“I would like to say that we never called him ‘neech’, instead we said with full respect that he belongs to an upper caste,” she said. “I did nothing wrong when I said that Narendra Modi was not backward like Mulayam (Singh Yadav) and Akhilesh (Yadav). I hope that after my press conference today, Narendra Modi will stop doing caste politics.”
During his rally in UP’s Kannauj earlier in the day, Modi had attacked the opposition alliance in the state for “only speaking about caste and completely ignoring the crucial issue of terrorism”.
“I have never spoken about my caste, but ‘mahamilawati’ people are forcing me to speak about it. I am not backward but was born in extreme backwardness. Don’t drag me into this caste politics,” he had said.
Modi had also “thanked” Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav and the Congress for having “reminded” him of his caste.
“I hail from an extremely backward caste, my caste is so small that there are only two-three houses of my caste in my village,” he had claimed.
Modi’s comments came days after Mayawati dismissed his claims of hailing from a backward caste. Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav, who were from the backward classes, have been working towards the development of the backward people, she had said.
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