UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi says Mayawati has a phobia about Rahul Gandhi

Lucknow, Nov.21 (ANI): The president of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the Congress party, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, has claimed that state Chief Minister Mayawati has a phobia of Rahul Gandhi, as he has the potential to remove her from office and power.

Addressing a party meeting here on Sunday, Bahuguna -Joshi said: "Mayawati has the phobia of the Congress party, especially Rahul Gandhi. So, we are very happy and we congratulate Rahul Gandhi, and hope, that due to his efforts, all Muslims, poor and from the backward classes, who are supposed to get reservation under the backward class category, will get it very soon."

She also criticised Mayawati for her suspected involvement in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam. The criticism came after a senior Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader, Babu Singh Kushwaha, had to resign as a minister on moral grounds owing responsibility for the killing of medical officers.

"If two of the senior level officers living in the IAS (Indian Administrative Services) and PCS (Probationary Civil Services) colonies can be killed during the early morning hours while they went out for a morning walk along with their friends, and further Babu Shri Kushwaha who was asked to resign due to ongoing NRHM (National Rural Health Mission) scam, surely his life is in danger. I believe that if he has expressed this doubt then it is not baseless because the links of this scam are directly linked to the office of the Chief Minister of the state," added Bahuguna Joshi.

Earlier on Saturday, Kushwaha had accused Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Secretary Shahshank Shekhar Singh, Principal Secretary (Home) Fateh Bahadur Singh and Minister of Public Works Department Naseemuddin Siddqui of hatching a plot to eliminate him.

Based on certain revelation on the NRHM scam, Deputy Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr. Yogendra Singh Sachan was arrested, but he was found dead later under mysterious circumstances inside Lucknow Jail on June 22.

Sachan was arrested on April 6 for misappropriation of NRHM funds. He was also booked for the murder of his senior colleague Dr. B P Singh. He was in judicial custody at the time of his death.(ANI)