Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Tuesday accused the Modi government of giving a step-motherly treatment to flood-hit Kerala and demanded that the calamity be declared a "national disaster".

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said in a statement that despite the magnitude of the crisis, Kerala was not given adequate help by the central government. This was done because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was playing politics even in such testing times for Keralites, she said. The BSP leader said that Kerala was suffering huge losses, both of life and property, in the worst floods in nearly a century.