The BSP has no official website, Facebook or Twitter accounts, supremo Mayawati clarified on Monday.
Any such pages, accounts or sites running in the name of the BSP are "unauthorized and fake," Ms. Mayawati said. The BSP will "not be accountable" for such people who run these pages or sites, she added.
While this is not the first time, the Dalit leader has distanced her party from social media accounts running in the BSP's name, her latest clarification came in the context of unauthorized people going on television debates on behalf on the party.
Issuing a statement, Ms. Mayawati referred to one particular person, Devashish Jarariya, who allegedly runs a website by the name of BSP Youth. Mr. Jarariya also claims to be a member of the party and is talks of connecting youths from across the country to the BSP and even takes charges money for it, Ms. Mayawati said.
He also often represents the BSP in television channel debates as a supporter, she added.
Referring to Mr. Jarariya, Ms. Mayawati said her party had no spokespersons and except for one leader Sudhindra Bhadoria, no BSP member was authorized to go on television debates.
Ms. Mayawati also said that the BSP has no separate wings for the youth, students or women, and she has not authorized anybody to run such units or organizations. She said that since the BSP gives 50% representation to youths in committees at every level, it does not feel the need to have a separate youth front.
Mr. Jarariya issued a statement on his Facebook profile after Ms. Mayawati's clarification. "Behenji's order is supreme. I apologise to Behenji for my mistake. I will readily accept your orders," he said
As per his profile, Mr. Jarariya is from Gwalior and studied in the Delhi University, Campus Law College. In his Facebook profile, he describes himself as "An Indian, An Ambedkarite, a writer and blogger, sometimes comes on TV, a dreamer, a believer." He also runs a Twitter handle, claiming to be a BSP member and as over 20 k followers.
