India
Mayawati’s resignation accepted after handwritten note to Vice President
New Delhi: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati’s resignation was accepted on Thursday after she met Vice President Hamid Ansari, the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, with a second letter, a one-line handwritten note.
The BSP is the third largest national political party in India. It was formed mainly to represent Bahujans (literally meaning “People in majority”), referring to people from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes (OBC), as well as religious minorities that together consist of 85 percent of India’s population but comprising of 6000 different castes.
“Jab satta paksh mujhe apni baat rakhne ka bhi samay nahi de raha hai toh mera isteefa dena hi theek hai (If the ruling party is not going to allow me to speak, then it’s better to resign),” Mayawati said, shortly after she submitted her letter of resignation to the Rajya Sabha secretary general Shamsher Shariff’s office at around 5 p.m.
Mayawati resigned from the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday after walking out of the house angrily.
Mayawati alleged that she was not being allowed to speak on the “atrocities” on Dalits.
According to reports, her three-page resignation was not accepted, because it was not in the right format.
Mayawati’s resignation letter entailed her reasons for resigning. A resignation from Parliament must be “unconditional,” only stating the lawmaker’s intent to quit, officials in the Rajya Sabha secretariat said. “It must not contain explanations.”
The BSP chief’s critics alleged that the veteran Parliamentarian would be well aware that her resignation would not be accepted, accusing her of political drama to demonstrate to Dalits, her core vote base, that she remains their foremost champion after successive defeats in elections.
However, many parliamentarians in the (recent) past have given detailed reasons of resignation and were later made to re-write their letters of resignation.
On Tuesday, Mayawati stormed out of the Rajya Sabha after she was told to ‘limit her speech’ on attacks on Dalits all over the country, with particular reference to an incident in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur, to three minutes.
“I simply wanted the Rajya Sabha Chair to pay attention to atrocities against the less fortunate sections of the society, especially Dalits. And as a representative, when I’m not being allowed to speak for them, I have no choice but to resign,” she said, not considering requests to withdraw her resignation.
According to a report in NDTV, it is seen as an attempt by Mayawati to consolidate her Dalit base and re-establish herself as the sole leader of the community after her defeat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections earlier this year, when her party could win only 18 seats.
Mayawati’s Rajya Sabha tenure would end in April next year.
Attached is the 3 page resignation letter, photos of which were shared by SabrangIndia.