Delhi will soon be ours: Maya

We are for reservation for poor among upper castes: BSP supremo

In a speech that went on for an hour, she religiously bashed the Congress, which she supported in 2004 from outside to form the government. Notably, her rival in the state Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) figured only on one or two occasions in the speech. Mayawati does not treat the SP as her rival, but the national parties, the Congress and the BJP.

“Since Independence, for 61 years, only the Congress and the BJP held power and nothing changed. Poor people, farmers, labourers and small businessmen from all castes remained the way they were. The people of UP should now vote for the BSP, so that we can form the government at the Centre,” she said.

“It is not just the Dalits she talks about, and she is embracing the poor of all hues. Other parties have formed governments with the help of big industrialists and rich businessmen. Hence their economic policies were tailor-made for them. But the BSP is the only party which fights the elections with the hard-earned money donated by the common people and supporters of the party. So we are not under pressure from anyone, and we will take care of the poor,” she said.

Mayawati also announced she was in favour of reservation for the poor among the upper castes and would implement it, if her party came to power at the Centre.

Step-motherly attitude

“The chief minister complained the Centre had always shown step-motherly attitude towards the state and had denied funds. No help whatsoever came from the Centre, and we were forced to withdraw support to the government. So it is important for us to form the government at the Centre,” she said.

No respect

Responding to Rahul Gandhi’s remarks that erecting statues and building parks did not constitute development, she said: “Despite ruling the country for so long, the Congress did not care to show respect to the father of our Constitution, Babasaheb Ambedkar or any of our leaders. There are enough statues of the Yuvraj’s family members. They have spent crores on Rajghat, but there was no discussion on that.  What we spent was a fraction. We are doing what they should have,” she said.