It is written on SP leaders' face: Mayawati agrees with Amit Shah's poll assessment

Lucknow, Feb 23: Former Chief Minister Mayawati and Union Home Minister Amit Shah's mutual praise has raised eyebrows as the BJP faces tough challengers in UP elections.

Speaking to media persons after polling, the BSP chief took a dig at Samajwadi Party stating that Muslims are not happy with it and voting for SP means "gunda raj, mafia raj".

"People will not vote for them. Muslims are not happy with SP. People of UP have rejected SP even before voting as voting for SP means Gunda raj, Mafia raj. Riots happened in the SP government. The face of SP leaders tells that they are not coming in power," said Mayawati.

Responding to Amit Shah's assessment of her campaign in an interview, Mayawati said, "It is his badappan (magnanimity) that he has acknowledged the truth."

"But I also want to tell him - in the three phases that have taken place in UP, the BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) has not just received Dalit and Muslim votes but we are also getting upper caste and backward caste votes. I want to tell him that," she said.

It is worth mentioning that Amit Shah in an exclusive interview to CNN News18 told that Mayawati's relevance was "not lost".

Amit Shah was asked whether the BSP taking away some of the Dalit and Muslim votes would help his party in Uttar Pradesh.

"I do not know if this would be an advantage for the BJP or a loss. It depends on the seat...it is seat specific. But it's not true that Mayawati's relevance is over," Amit Shah said.