Rajasthan: BSP leaders abused, paraded on donkeys; Mayawati slams Congress

In a shocking incident, two office-bearers of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had their faces blackened and were made to sit on donkeys in Jaipur on Tuesday. The video of the incident has gone viral.

According to news agency ANI, a group of people, described as BSP workers, blackened the faces of BSP national coordinator Ramji Gautam and former Rajasthan party in-charge Sitaram and paraded them on donkeys in Jaipur. The BSP workers even garlanded the two leaders with shoes and claimed they were indulging in anti-party activities. According to local media reports, the incident took place outside the BSP office in Jaipur. The angry workers alleged the two leaders had been selling tickets for elections.

Gautam, a former national vice president of the BSP, had been appointed a national coordinator by Mayawati in June.

In September, all six MLAs of the BSP joined the Congress as a block, dealing a massive blow to Mayawati's party. The BSP was the largest party offering support to the Congress government, which had been short of a majority since elections in late 2018. Following the incident, Mayawati dissolved the state committee of the BSP in Rajasthan and lashed out at the Congress.

On Tuesday, in an apparent response to assault on the two BSP leaders in Jaipur, Mayawati attacked the Congress on Twitter. She wrote, “The Congress first split the BSP MLAs in Rajasthan and is now attacking senior people there to hurt the movement, which is very shameful... The Congress is adopting a very wrong tradition against the Ambedkarite movement, to which people can give a resounding answer.”