Savitribai Phule, who had joined the Congress this year in May, resigned from the party on Thursday, 26 December, stating that her "voice was not being heard."
After tendering her resignation, Phule stated that she will form her own party, reported ANI.
As a BJP MP from Bahraich in UP, Phule resigned from the party in December last year. She said that she was dissatisfied with the “divisive” politics of BJP, accusing them of being “anti-Dalit, anti-backward, and plotting to end reservations.”
Congress welcomed Phule this year, hoping that her strong Dalit connection would help the party in East Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, she could not win from Bahraich, where she was the sitting MP.
Phule has also blamed Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi for her resignation.
She claimed, “When I pleaded with Priyanka Gandhi to let me organise a protest against the violation of the Constitution and the use of EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines), she said the Congress government had decided to bring EVMs so I couldn't protest against it.”
Phule won the Assembly elections in 2012 for the first time and then in 2014 again. Before her stint with the BJP, she was also associated with Mayawati's BSP.
(With inputs from ANI)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)