Mayawati asks party to be ready for mid-term polls

Chandigarh, Oct 28: Exhorting the party to be prepared for a mid-term poll, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP supremo Mayawati today asked the party cadre to be ready to repeat the UP formula of social engineering at the national level and promised to give reservation to poor among minorities and upper castes if the BSP came to power at the Centre.

Addressing a BSP rally here, Ms Mayawati said the UPA government at the Centre could fall any time due to its standoff with the Left parties on the Indo-US nuclear deal and mid-term Lok Sabha polls were most likely to be announced.

In an apparent attempt to woo the religious minorities and upper castes, Ms Mayawati said if her party came to power at the Centre, it would bring about an amendment in the Constitution to provide reservation to the economically backward people belonging to religious minorities as well as upper castes.

She said after becoming UP Chief Minister, she had written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to bring about such an amendment but he had not done anything in this regard.

''BSP does what it says. We will bring about the amendment when we come to power at the Centre,'' she added.

The BSP leader also called upon the party cadre to be ready for the mid-term polls and initiate the process of social engineering across the country to attract the upper caste towards BSP by countering the Opposition propaganda that it was a caste-based party.

UNI