BSP president Mayawati on Saturday accused the Congress of neglecting Dalits and Muslims while picking the new Karnataka chief minister and the deputy chief minister because of the “casteist mindset“. “After the Karnataka assembly elections, the Congress tried to suppress its internal strife by making D K Shivakumar the deputy chief minister. But why neglect Dalit and Muslim communities when these unitedly voted for the Congress’ victory,” she said in a tweet in Hindi.

Mayawati said the Congress ignored the Dalit community which wanted that one of its leaders be made the deputy chief minister.

“The Congress has not made any Dalit or Muslim deputy CM and it only shows its casteist mentality. It remembers these classes only during its bad days,” the BSP supremo said.

Siddaramaiah was sworn in as Karnataka chief minister and state Congress president D K Shivakumar as deputy chief minister on Saturday.

The BSP, which had fielded 133 candidates in the Karnataka elections for the 224-member assembly, drew a blank and got a meagre vote share of 0.31 per cent.