Following the Lok Sabha election 2019 debacle in which the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won only 10 seats, while the BSP-SP (Samajwadi Party) Gathabandhan together managed only 15 seats in Uttar Pradesh, party supremo Mayawati accused SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav of "working hand in glove with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)" to frame her in Rs 17 crore Taj corridor scam case.
Mayawati launched a scathing attack on the Yadav family including former ally and SP president Akhilesh Yadav of working against non-Yadav and backward communities/Dalits, leading to loss of votes in the recently concluded parliamentary elections. Addressing a crucial BSP meeting in Lucknow on Sunday, June 23, the BSP chief claimed that Mulayam helped the BJP in implicating her in Taj corridor case.
Speculations are rife that Mayawati's latest outburst is reportedly due to the electoral defeat and also because Akhilesh Yadav had neither visited nor talked to her over the phone ever since the results were of the Lok Sabha polls were announced.
"Mayawati told party leaders that Akhilesh had an important say in seat-sharing between the alliance partners and played a pivotal role in the selection of candidates. She said Akhilesh asked her to field minimum Muslim candidates as it might lead to polarisation during the election. Terming it bad advice, she said it proved to be an important factor in the defeat of the alliance," a Hindustan Times report quoted a BSP leader as saying.
The two-hour-long national convention of the BSP was attended by all newly-elected MPs, MLAs and key post-holders from across the nation. The meeting was held at party headquarters in Lucknow on Sunday.
The Taj corridor scam case
Back in 2002, the then chief minister of UP Mayawati had started work on the Taj corridor project to give a facelift to areas around the Taj Mahal in Agra. Around Rs 17 crore was released for the project, which involved linking the Taj Mahal to Agra Fort, and use this corridor to develop malls and amusement parks.
The total cost of the project, which allegedly started without any environmental clearances, was estimated to be around Rs 175 crore.
A year later the Supreme Court asked the CBI to investigate the issue in the Taj corridor project in 2003. The BSP chief was accused of embezzling funds earmarked for the project and a case of disproportionate assets -- an offshoot of the scam -- was registered against her in 2004.
