Uttar Pradesh minister Giriraj Singh Dharmesh on Thursday likened Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati to a “naked electric wire”. Dharmesh, who was recently inducted into the state government, made the comments while speaking to the media in Agra, IANS reported.

“Anyone who touches her will die,” Dharmesh was quoted as saying. “Mayawati is not trustworthy and has betrayed everyone. She used the Samajwadi Party, increased her party’s strength during Lok Sabha [elections] to 10 and then ditched that party.”

The BSP and Samajwadi Party, once arch-rivals, contested this year’s Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh together in an effort to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party, but they won only 15 of the 80 seats in the state between them. The BJP won 62 seats.

Dharmesh, who holds the social welfare, and scheduled caste and scheduled tribe welfare portfolios, recalled that it was BJP leader Brahm Dutt Dwivedi who had saved Mayawati’s life in the 1995 guest house incident, when she was allegedly taken hostage and attacked by Samajwadi Party workers.

Dharmesh, who represents the Agra cantonment seat in the Legislative Assembly, said that the saffron party had helped Mayawati become the chief minister on three occasions. The minister also alleged that BSP founder Kanshi Ram had died under mysterious circumstances and said he would meet Chief Minister Adityanath to ask for a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the matter.

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