Cong bashing at Maya rally
Party still opposed to Women’s Bill
Uttar Pradesh Chief minister Mayawati on Monday demanded that poll symbols of the Congress (hand) and the Samajwadi Party (cycle) should also be frozen if such a move is against her party symbol (elephant).
Mayawati is under scrutiny of the Election Commission for erecting statues of elephants at various public places.
Addressing a massive rally of party workers here, Mayawati slammed Opposition parties, especially the Congress, for alleging that erection of the statues of elephants amounted to electoral abuse of the poll symbol. She pointed out that Congress politicians also wave hands at rallies. Hence, it also amounted to electoral abuse.
“The Samajwadi Party, when it was in power, had distributed cycles among the poor... it should also be considered abuse of the poll symbol,” she said.
Attacking the Congress further, Mayawati termed the visits by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to Dalit households a “natak” (drama). She alleged that the Congress had done noting for the Dalits during its long rule in the country.
She said her opponents were trying to implicate her in false cases but she was not the one who would be cowed down by it.
Expressing her opposition to the Women’s Reservation Bill, she said her party would hold a day-long nationwide dharna on April 14 next if its demand for reservation for the Dalits, Muslims and upper caste poor was not conceded.
Mayawati defended erection of statues of Dalit icons and setting up of parks. She said the Congress had constructed parks and erected statues of the Nehru-Gandhi family spending crores but no one raised any question.
“The money spent on erecting statues of Dalit icons and constructing parks is not even 1 per cent of the state’s budget,” she added. She even justified erecting her own statues. “Is there any law which bars erection of statues of living people.... I don’t think so,” she said.
Facing several court cases including the disproportionate assets case, Mayawati announced the formation of her party’s legal cell to be headed by BSP’s most prominent Brahmin face and lawyer S C Mishra.
Mayawati also announced the name of three state-level BSP leaders, who she said would be henceforth responsible for bringing the Brahmins to the BSP fold. She said her announcement should not be construed as demotion or marginalisation for Mishra.
DH News Service
Rs 5-crore garland from Bangalore
Lucknow, agencies: BSP chief Mayawati was presented a giant garland of currency notes by her fans from Karnataka. Though the exact value of the garland is not known, onlookers put it in the region of a whopping Rs 5 crore! In fact, no one noticed the Rs 1,000 currency notes with which the giant garland was created until these were identified by a local photographer when he zoomed in. The garland was specially crafted and brought by Mayawati’s party functionaries all the way from Bangalore to mark the BSP’s silver jubilee celebrations.
