After taking a lead over other political parties in announcing candidates for the bypolls to 11 Assembly seats in UP, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati declared the names of 20 star campaigners on Wednesday.
A BSP communiqué said that besides Mayawati, the list includes the names of senior leaders Satish Chandra Mishra, Akash Anand, Munkad Ali, RS Kushwaha, Bhimrao Ambedkar, Naushad Ali, Gangaram Gautam, Harmesh Pasi, Chintamani, Harish Sailani, Interzar Ahmed Abdi, Mithlesh Gautam, Susheel Kumar Munna, Mithlesh Pankaj Gautam, Ram Kishore Pal, VP Anand, Vijay Gautam, Advocate Vinay Kashyap and Dr Vinod Bharti.
Meanwhile, terming the killing of two Dalit children in Madhya Pradesh for defecating in the open as ‘unfortunate’, Mayawati slammed the successive Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress governments at the Centre and in state for failing to provide proper toilet facilities.
The two Dalit children were beaten to death by two persons for defecating on a street in front of a panchayat building in Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday.
In a tweet, the BSP posted, “The Congress and BJP governments should explain why proper toilet facilities have not been provided in the houses of poor Dalits and backward communities? If this truth is very bitter then those who beat to death the Dalits for being forced to defecate in the open should be hanged.”
The father of one of the deceased has alleged that they have been facing discrimination over their caste in Bhavkedhi village, where the incident took place on Wednesday morning.