The Congress and the BJP have strongly criticised the presentation of another garland of money to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati.
BSP leaders presented a garland worth Rs18 lakh, comprising notes of various denominations, to Mayawati at a party meeting in Lucknow today.
“The brazen display of ill-gotten wealth by the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, who holds public office, is something the Congress party will fight politically," senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh said. "We shall go to the people and tell them how government funds are being siphoned off for her party work and for personal use.
“The property she acquired in her name and in the names of her family members is something we will make public. We will go to the people and convince them that she is only concerned about the daulat [wealth] and not about Dalits," Singh said.
Meanwhie, BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad slammed Mayawati for wasting public money.
"We are pained," Prasad said. "Democracy goes with public, civil accountability as well, but the brazen manner in which it is being said that we shall continue to give it [garlands of money] is an open violation of basic democratic norms."
Mayawati was presented with a similar garland made of 1,000-rupee notes, worth a few crores, at a massive party rally on Monday, prompting an outcry by all other parties.
Opponents of Mayawati have claimed that the BSP leader spent over Rs200 crore to ferry her supporters in buses from the villages to fill up an 80-acre ground that was decorated with flowers.
