Mayawati gets into election mode; woos the upper caste

Hardwar, Nov 19 (UNI) In a bid to woo the upper caste and the minorities, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati has strongly advocated reservation for them on economic grounds.

Addressing a big rally of the party at Nehru stadium in Roorkee last evening, Ms Mayawati said her party favoured amendment to the Constitution to extend the benefits of reservation to the poor irrespective of caste and creed.

''We are opposed to providing reservation to the creamy layer of the OBC. Instead of providing the benefits of reservation to the creamy layer, the poor of the upper caste and the minorities should be brought within its purview,'' she said. She also said if her party came to power in Uttaranchal, the reservation for the OBC in the state services would be enhanced to 27 per cent.

Giving a clarion call to the people to oust the Samajwadi Party government in UP and the Congress government in Uttaranchal, she said these governments had failed to deliver the goods. ''The BSP will go it alone in the coming state assembly election in UP and Uttaranchal and will field candidates on all the seats,'' she declared.

Putting the Congress, BJP and SP in the dock, she said these parties had always betrayed the cause of Bahujan Samaj. ''The central government and the state government of UP did not even show the usual political courtesy of declaring a national holiday on the passing of Kanshi Ram, the messiah of the Bahujan Samaj,'' she said.

Queering pitch on the issue of the exclusion of Hardwar and Udham Singh Nagar from Uttaranchal, she said her party supports the people of these districts and if they wanted the restoration of the districts to the parent state UP, her party would espouse their cause. ''The people of these districts are being discriminated against in the state. Since the state government has not done justice to them, they are demanding exclusion from the state,'' she alleged.

Denying the allegation that she had called Muslims fanatics, she said she never used any derogatory terms for the community . ''Her statement to this effect was made only with reference to a particular opportunist Muslim leader of Meerut,'' she said.

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