Mayawati backs Mamata, says Modi-Shah targeting her is 'risky and unjust

UP, May 16 Expressing solidarity with West Bengal Chief Mamata Banerjee, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati lashed out at the RSS and the BJP blaming them of orchestrating violence in the state.

"It is clear that PM Modi, Amit Shah and their leaders are targeting Mamata Banerjee, its planned targeting. This is a very dangerous and unjust trend and one which sometimes falls short for the PM of the nation," said Mayawati on Thursday.

"The Election Commission has banned in West Bengal, yet from 10 pm today because PM has two rallies in the day. In the event that they needed to ban, at that point why not from today morning? This is unreasonable and EC is acting under pressure," she included.

In first such action in India's electoral history, the Election Commission on Wednesday ordered campaigning in nine West Bengal constituencies to end at 10 pm on Thursday, a day before its scheduled deadline in the wake of violence between BJP and Trinamool Congress workers in Kolkata. Strongly condemning the act of violence, the EC conjured Article 324 and took the choice to confine battling time in the nine parliamentary seats in West Bengal - Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Jadavpur, Diamond Harbor, South and North Kolkata.

Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah of carefully planning a "strategy" to create ruckus in the express, the pformer UP chief minister stated, "Bengal has been in the news as far back as Lok Sabha poll dates were reported. The RSS and BJP is behind this"

The BSP boss cases that this is to occupy voters from Modi's inadequacies.

Banerjee later took to Twitter to thank Mayawati and other Opposition leaders for their support.

"Thanks and gratitude to @Mayawati, @yadavakhilesh, @INCIndia, @ncbn and others for expressing solidarity and support to us and the people of #Bengal. EC's one-sided activities under the bearings of the #BJP are an immediate attack on democracy. people will give a befitting reply,"she tweeted.

Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav are slated to address a joint rally in PM Modi's constituency demographic Varanasi on Thursday to seek votes for gathbandhan (alliance) candidate Shalini Yadav.