The Hindu : Udit Raj joins issue with Mayawati

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 17, 2003

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National

Udit Raj joins issue with Mayawati

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 16. The president of Justice Party, Udit Raj, today joined issue with the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, and said she "contradicted" herself when she advocated that Dalits could embrace Buddhism protesting against Hindu religious practices while having an alliance with the BJP.

Reacting to Ms. Mayawati's comments at the Lucknow rally on Monday, he said the BSP leader had in the past opposed his move for mass conversions. Besides the BSP was running a coalition Government with the help of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was opposed to religious conversions.

Citing the instance of the Gujarat Government, which recently enacted an anti-conversion law, he said Ms. Mayawati had campaigned for the BJP ahead of the Assembly polls last year.

Mr. Raj, who resigned from the Indian Revenue Service and took to politics, denied the charge that he was being promoted by the Congress. His party was working for the Dalits as a class and neither the BSP supreme Kanshi Ram nor Ms. Mayawati had till date unveiled their agenda for these sections of people.

Mr. Raj said his party would contest the coming Assembly elections both in Delhi and Rajasthan, where it had an organisational presence.

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