A day after the Centre decided to move the apex court to seek permission for returning 67 acres of land acquired around the 2.77 acre disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site, to the original owners, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of indulging in racial and religious politics and going against the spirit of the Constitution.

Terming the decision as “another instance of forced government interference and a deliberate attempt at influencing the coming Lok Sabha elections,” the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh said that the people should be careful of the BJP’s new tactic.

Upping the ante against the BJP, Mayawati said that the efforts to disturb the prevailing conditions on a matter which was already pending in Supreme Court was wrong and provocative.

She added that it was a new poll plank of the BJP, motivated by politics centred on electoral interests.

The BSP chief said that after losing touch with the people due to its failure to address issues of the poor, inflation, unemployment and illiteracy and lack of development, the BJP government was left with the last resort of  playing the religion card in the Ayodhya issue.

Mayawati said that the people were oppressed and fed up with this kind of politics as it was not in their interest and welfare.

The BSP chief said that the BJP had come to realise that it would not come to power at the Centre after the Bahujan Samaj Party-Samajwadi Party alliance, hence it was now adopting methods which no citizen of the nation expected from a government working as per the Constitution of India.