First insulted Kshatriya community, now mocking Dalit icon Kanshi Ram: BJP slams Akhilesh Yadav

New Delhi, April 13 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday lashed out at Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav for allegedly mocking Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram and "insulting" the Dalit community.

BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya took to the social media platform X and shared a video of Akhilesh Yadav, accusing him of disparaging Kanshi Ram to elevate SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's legacy.

"Akhilesh Yadav first insulted the Kshatriya community by supporting the statement of an SP MP who called Rana Sanga a traitor. Now he is mocking the Dalit community's guide, Kanshi Ram, only to make him look smaller than Mulayam Singh," Malviya wrote.

"Now it seems that you have started smelling foul smell from every section of Hindu society. There is no cure for this disease called 'secularism,'" he added.

Kanshi Ram, who founded the BSP in 1984, dedicated his life to the upliftment of Dalits and marginalised communities. His political journey was marked by challenges in the early years before gaining wider recognition.

The controversy arose after Akhilesh Yadav, while speaking at a recent event, said, "While this is history, it is also true that if anyone had got the founder of Bahujan Samaj Party to the Lok Sabha, then it was the voters of this place who had helped him get to the Lok Sabha. He was unable to win from anywhere."

"It is recorded in history that at that time, if anyone had helped the founder of the party, Kanshi Ram, to win, then it was Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) and the socialist people who had helped him get to the Lok Sabha," he added.

Kanshi Ram was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1991 from Etawah under the SP-BSP alliance, which strategically benefited from the Samajwadi Party not fielding a candidate in Jaswantnagar.

The alliance marked a major turning point in Uttar Pradesh politics, uniting backward castes and Dalits against the rising tide of the BJP.

However, the alliance collapsed after the infamous 1995 guest house incident, where SP workers allegedly attacked Mayawati.

Despite the fallout, Kanshi Ram's Lok Sabha win in 1991 cemented his political legacy and established BSP as a national political force.

--IANS

sd/