Corridor and disproportionate assets cases against her after the BSP refused to fight 2004 General Election along with BJP. She claimed that the decision to build Taj Corridor was that of BJP government in Uttar Pradesh and not hers. “In 2003, BJP said it was in favour of contesting election along with BSP. I said we can form the government but cannot contest elections together because of ideological differences. I refused to contest election and they said they will withdraw support. They did and I resigned as Chief Minister,” she said. She also alleged that during last 8-9 years, opposition parties particularly BJP continued their propaganda whenever voting issue came,” Mayawati said. Mayawati reacted sharply to the remarks that her party was helping the government under CBI pressure and attacked Swaraj for it. She narrated a story of a fox trying to reach juicy grapes on a tree and declaring them sour after failing to do so. “They (BJP) felt that our walkout has caused them damage. So they declared the grapes as sour,” the BSP chief said. Her remarks led to noisy scenes in the House. BJP members objected to naming of Swaraj who is a member of the Lok Sabha and demanded that the remarks be expunged. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath, however, said there was nothing unparliamentary in what the BSP supremo has said. Amid the uproar, Chairman Hamid Ansari asked members to observe established etiquettes and ruled that any unparliamentary comment would not go on record. He also underlined that it was an established practice not to name members of the other House and that be maintained. Talking about allegations made against BSP over FDI vote in Lok Sabha, she said, “Yesterday, the Leader of the Opposition and some leaders accused my party and me that we walked out as there is CBI pressure on me. This is baseless.” Supporting FDI in multi-brand retail, she said her party will vote in favour of the government tomorrow in the Rajya Sabha because the policy has a plus point as it is not binding on the state governments to implement it. PTI
