I will form my own party: Savitribai Phule quits Cong

“My voice is not being heard in Congress and hence I am resigning. I will form my own party,” Phule said.

Prominent Scheduled Caste leader Savitribai Phule, who quit the BJP to join the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, on Thursday bid farewell to the grand old party claiming that she did not get a satisfactory hearing from Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The saffron-clad Phule, known for her fiery speeches, had won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Bahraich on a BJP ticket, but had quit the party in December last year accusing it of trying to divide the country.

She joined the Congress later after a meeting with Priyanka, the AICC General Secretary in-charge of the party affairs in Uttar Pradesh, in March and contested the Lok Sabha elections unsucessfully from Bahraich.

“My voice is not being heard in Congress and hence I am resigning. I will form my own party,” Phule told reporters here.

She claimed that Priyanka had ignored the suggestions made by her on conducting the elections through paper ballots instead of electronic voting machines.

“When I pleaded to Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi to let me protest against the violation of the constitution and use of EVM (Electronic Voting Machines), she said that it was her government who had brought the idea of EVM and that I cannot protest against it,” Phule claimed.

Former Youth Congress President Amarinder Singh Raja Brar hit out at Phule accusing her of lying.

“Were you not respected on every platform? Did you not receive respect in every roadshow? Did Priyankaji not listen to you? Leaving a party and establishing one is another thing, but please do not lie. Everyone knows the truth,” Brar, a Congress MLA in Punjab assembly said.

Phule was earlier associated with Mayawati's BSP. She had joined BJP in 2000 and contested the Assembly elections in 2002, 2007 and 2012. She managed to win the assembly polls in 2012 from Balha seat and later went on to win the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Bahraich.

Phule fell out with the BJP after the Supreme Court struck down the stringent provisions of the Atrocities Act.