Mayawati woes upper caste ahead of LS poll

Lucknow, Oct 19: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Sunday, Oct 19 announced that if her party comes to power at the Centre, she will provide reservation for the poor of the upper caste.

''I have also sent a letter to the Centre demanding reservation for the upper caste poor,'' she said.

Addressing a national upper caste conference organised by the BSP here, Ms Mayawati, expressing her concern, said the economic conditions of the poor of the upper caste was very bad and now the unemployment in the youths have made the situation worse.

Asking the poor and unemployed youths of the upper caste, she told them to unite with other faction of the Bahujan Samaj to grab the 'master key' of the Centre so that they could be benefitted.

She also said Dr B R Ambedkar had also suggested that unity of the poor of all the castes could bring a revolution in the country and if this happens a change is expected for poor, unemployed youths of all the castes and communities of the society.

The BSP president said the upper caste people should support her party to come to power at the Centre so that the country could evolve an economic policy for the poor and unemployed youths of all castes and communities.

On the occasion the Chief Minister also raked up that while the other parties like BJP and Congress toe the lines of the industrial house's in preparing the economic policy as they take large donation from them for political purposes, the BSP on other hand was not dependent on the Industrial House as contribution from poor was the only source of funds of the party.

Clarifying her party stand on the representation of the upper caste in the coming Lok Sabha or Assembly Elections, Ms Mayawati said she will only give tickets to those who can garner full support of their caste. ''Earlier our slogan was 'Jiski Jitni Sankhya Bhari, Uski Utni Bhagedari' but now in the changed political situation the slogan has turned into 'Jiski Jitni Tayari, Uski Utni Bhagedari','' she said.

The Chief Minister said the new slogan had worked in the past Assembly elections in the state resulting in maximum success by the party candidates of upper caste. ''Besides this the brotherhood committies of all castes in the state formed by the BSP has strengthened the unity among all the section of the society,'' she said.

Stating reason for being selective in giving ticket to the viable candidates of the upper caste in the elections, she said a BSP ticket for Lok Sabha would ensure two to three lakh votes of party to a candidate of any caste while for assembly it would be around 40,000 to 50,000. So it is very necessary to see whether the candidate can get the votes of his own community so that he can outrightly win or our BSP vote bank were lost, she added.

She also said BSP had always given maximum representation to the upper caste in all the sectors whether it is in politics, administration or in the government.

On the occasion she did not spare the Centre and the Congress by alleging that had the Centre sactioned Rs 80,000 crore special economic package sought by the UP government, the development programmes of the state would have reached its peak.

BSP general secretary and upper caste mascot of the party Satish Chandra Mishra narrated in brief about the sops given to the upper caste by the present state government and announced that in future too the party will continue to associate with them in all their fights.

This was the third back-to-back such national conference organised by the BSP in Lucknow. Earlier on October 13, the party organised a Muslim conference and yesterday it was for the SC/ST and OBCs.

UNI