Mayawati says she will no longer visit memorial sites of social reformers to avoid inconvenience to public

Lucknow: BSP president Mayawati on Wednesday said she will no longer visit major memorial sites dedicated to key social reformers on their birth and death anniversaries, citing public inconvenience due to security arrangements made for her.

In a detailed post on X, Mayawati said during four terms of the BSP rule in Uttar Pradesh, the government honoured great social reformers and icons such as Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj, Sree Narayana Guru, Dr B R Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram, who were often "neglected" by governments run by "casteist parties".

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government had launched several major welfare schemes in the names of these leaders, and built grand memorials, parks and monuments in Lucknow and Gautam Buddh Nagar, which have now become "pilgrimage sites" for their followers, drawing large crowds on their birth and death anniversaries.

Mayawati said her personal visits to these sites often resulted in inconvenience to people due to heavy security deployment.

"Experience shows that the security arrangements made during my visit cause difficulties for people, as they are stopped far away from the main site until I leave," she said.

In view of this, the BSP chief said she would now offer tributes to these icons at her residence or at the party office instead of visiting the memorials.

She added that on the occasion of Dr BR Ambedkar's death anniversary on December 6, party workers and followers in Uttar Pradesh (excluding western UP) would gather in large numbers at the Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Sthal in Lucknow, while those from western UP, Delhi and Uttarakhand would offer tributes at the Rashtriya Dalit Prerna Sthal in Noida.

She said they would also pledge to carry forward Ambedkar's mission of social equality and self-respect, so that the BSP could "move towards achieving power" and advance the movement led by these icons.