It was Chief Minister Mayawati's day in capital!

New Delhi, May 25: Savouring a heady mix of power and popularity, Chief Minister Ms Mayawati today unfolded her vision of a new Uttar Pradesh which will be free of crime, corruption and wedded to the credo of development.

Holding centre stage at her first interaction with the national media at a five star hotel here, a confident Mayawati fielded a wide array of questions with self-assurance and political maturity.

In a hall swarming with mediapersons who included the creme de la creme of the Fourth Estate, Ms Mayawati at times did not fight shy of upbraiding journalsits for their 'misplaced and wrong questions.' ''You don't know how to ask a question. I have already clarified my stand on the issue,'' she said when a journalist persisted with his query on the BSP Government's stand on Anil Ambani's proposed SEZ at Noida.

Ms Mayawati also did not miss the opportunity to remind the high brow journalists as to how their exit polls on the Assembly elections went ridiculously off the mark.

''It is time you people did some introspection. For the first time in 16 years, the BSP has secured an absolute majority ending prolonged instability.'' She also dismissed a question from a senior journalist suggesting that she had named the Samajawadi party and the BJP in connection with the Gorakhpur blasts which were aimed at destabilising her government.

''Is is indeed a big conspiracy, but I never named the two parties at my press conference in Lucknow,'' She said.

The Chief Minister also said there was nothing wrong in capturing Delhi in the 2009 general elections.

When asked to comment on her party's slogan 'Lucknow ki bari, Dilli ki tayyari'(After Lucknow, the BSP is al set for Delhi), Ms Mayawati said, '' It is not just the party's slogan, but it was also reflective of people's strong wish to see her in power at the Centre).

She said there was nothing wrong in that feeling. ''It is but natural for her party to set eyes on Delhi.''

UNI