I never threatened to jail Mulayam, Amar: Mayawati

Lucknow, Apr 28 (UNI) Retracting from her much-pubiliced statement during her election meetings, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati today clarified that she had ''never threatened to jail present incumbent Mulayam Singh Yadav and SP leader Amar Singh once her party returned to power.'' To a poser about her statement that she would jail Samajwadi Party leaders if BSP came to power, Ms Mayawati clarified that she had never said such a thing. ''I had said that those guilty of irregularities done by the SP government would not be spared even if it were Mulayam Singh Yadav or Amar Singh'', she said.

The BSP president said the SP MLAs who had joined the BSP had told her that the SP top leaders including the Chief Minister were planning to flee from the country if voted out of power in the assembly polls.

Claiming that her party would absolute majority in the Assembly elections, Ms Mayawati today thanked the Election Commission for holding free and fair polls in Uttar Pradesh.

''There is no need of a post-poll pact with any party as BSP is going to get absolute majority in the assembly,'' she said after casting her vote in the Lucknow East assembly seat this morning.

Being in a very jovial mood, Ms Mayawati said law and order was the main issue in the ongoing assembly polls of the state and said development could only be taken if law and order were good in any state.

Talking to mediapersons, she said it was for the first time that Dalits had come out openly to cast votes without any fear. '' All appreciation goes to EC for making such a fool-proof arrangement so that the dalits and other oppressed classes could vote without any fear,'' she added.

Ms Mayawati, however, said some more measures needed to be taken to rectify lapses in the electoral rolls. ''It is unfortunate that even months after the death of BSP founder Kanshi Ram, his name still exists in the electoral rolls,'' she pointed out.

UNI