Ahmedabad: BSP president Mayawati today met the victims of Una atrocity incident here and claimed that Chief Minister Mrs Anandiben Patel had to resign owing to the backlash of the public flogging of the victims.

Ms Mayawati, who arrived in a chartered flight here, first went to Sarangpur and garlanded the Ambedker statue there and also met three of the victims there.

Later she also went to Civil Hospital and met the four victims who were still under treatment there.

Talking to newsmen the BSP leader said that the family members informed her that though some arrests have been made in the case, the main culprits and conspirators of the Una incident were still at large. She said that the Dalits in Gujarat were living in fear.

To a query she said that had she not raised the issue in the parliament, it would not have been highlighted. ‘I raised the issue in parliament on July 18 and wanted to visit Una at the earliest but BJP under a well hatched conspiracy made its senior leader in UP, Dayashanker Singh utter indecent words against me and owing to the circumstances arisen I could not. Now that the situation has normalized I have come here to meet the victims,’ She said.

She alleged that opposition Congress also did not protest the Una incident in Gujarat properly. ‘If the dalits were living in terror now the cases of atrocity during Congress regime had also increased,’ she said.

The BSP leader said that the state government should provide best possible treatment to the victims and if necessary they should be sent to Delhi for better treatment. ‘If the government does not do that my party will bear the expenses of treatment.

She also said that her party has given a financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh each to the seven victims.

DeshGujarat