Modi suffers from regional mentality, says Maya

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Sunday launched an all-out attack on Gujarat chief minister and BJP 's Election Campaign Committee chairman Narendra Modi terming him “regionalist” and “narrow minded”.

“You (people) can easily understand the personality of a person, who dreams of becoming prime minister of the country but talks only about the people from Gujarat, who were trapped in Uttarakhand,” Mayawati said while addressing a “Brahmin sammelan” (meeting) of the party here.

“A person with such a mentality cannot work with a national and secular outlook if he occupies the top post,” the BSP leader said asking her party men to guard against such people, who have “regional sentiment and are narrow minded”. Mayawati, however, refrained from taking Narendra Modi's name in her speech.

In an apparent bid to the brahmins, Mayawati said that her party, if it came to power at the Centre after the next Lok Sabha polls, would provide reservation to the members of the community.

She sought to make it clear that her party was not a caste based party. “The BSP is not against any religion and caste. We want every one to develop,” she said. “We only want to abolish the prevailing social system that encourages inequality,” she added.

She said that the BSP had been working for the uplift of “sarvajan” (people from every caste).Mayawati also attacked the Samajwadi Party regime in the state and accused it of failing to deliver on all fronts. She said the law and order situation had turned for the worse in the state and women and girls avoid venturing out of their homes after dark.

“Even Mulayam Singh Yadav, who is the father of the chief minister, has said on several occasions that the law and order situation is not good,” Mayawati said.

She also lashed out at the media for what she claimed trying to demoralise the BSP workers. “Such media outlets suffer from anti-dalit mentality,” she said.

The BSP supremo said that henceforth she would be devoting more time to UP though she added that she had to visit the other states in a bid to expand the base of the party in the country.