Mathura (UP), Sep 13 (PTI) BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Dinesh Sharma on Friday said there is a huge difference between the ideologies of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP).

Talking to reporters in Vrindavan, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said, "BSP workers and Dalits faced the most atrocities during the SP regime. If you search on the internet, you will find that most cases of atrocities on Dalits were registered during the SP regime. The workers of both the SP and the BSP did not accept the alliance between the two parties (in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls)."

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"When the BSP got 10 seats and the SP only five (in Uttar Pradesh), the SP felt that the BSP got its votes but the SP had not got the BSP's votes. Probably after that, the two leaders (SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati) had differences. Anyway, the SP is an anti-Dalit party," Sharma added.

He was here to offer prayers at the Banke Bihari temple.

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Sharma's statement assumes significance as it came hours after Mayawati, in a post in Hindi on X, said, "In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, after the BSP won 10 seats and the SP five in Uttar Pradesh, I had publicly said that the SP chief had stopped answering my phone calls. How appropriate and credible is his clarification after so many years? A matter to think about."

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister also said, "The BSP does not form alliances for ideological reasons and if it forms alliances for bigger purposes, it remains faithful to those. There were efforts to maintain the alliances with the SP in 1993 and 2019, but the interest and self-respect of the 'Bahujan Samaj' is paramount."

Sharma also said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not believe in casteism.

"The prime minister has considered youngsters, farmers, women and the poor as castes and the BJP government (at the Centre) is working for their welfare," he added.

Sharma advised the opposition parties to work for the poor and backward people of all castes and described casteism as a "poison" and the "biggest obstacle in the progress of the country".

"History is witness that a few hundred years ago, there was only the Varna system in place of the caste system. Sanatani Hindus could change their Varna on the basis of their work. The Mughals and the British started promoting the caste system only to remain in power. Since most of the history was written by foreigners, they tried to weaken the Sanatan culture, which is the root of the country's unity. Today, the Congress is doing the same and not backing down from any attempt to weaken the country," the BJP leader said.

He claimed that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is dreaming about coming to power at the Centre by any means, adding that this will not happen.

"To mislead people, he spreads rumours about conducting a caste census. Sometimes he talks about reservation, sometimes he says the Constitution is in danger. Rahul Gandhi is adopting every trick to destabilise the government.

"The culture of the Congress is to grab power by creating differences between Hindus and Muslims, upper castes and backward castes, Muslims and other castes," Sharma alleged.

He also alleged that Gandhi creates differences between two castes and then shows sympathy for one. "Sometimes he gets photographed standing in front of a Shiva temple wearing a Ramnami dupatta and sometimes he starts wearing a cap, which he has currently given up. He wants to divide the country," Sharma said.

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