Oppn trying to project BSP as anti-upper caste: Mayawati

Mumbai, Jun 26: Opposition parties, as a part of a political conspiracy, branded BSP as being opposed to the upper castes though it was not the case, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP president, Mayawati, said here today (Jun 26).

"Opposition has tried all dirty tricks in the book, and under a well though-out political conspiracy, they have spread the propaganda that our party and its ideology are opposed to the upper castes," she said at a rally in suburban Goregaon.

"We have all along said BSP is not against any caste...We want to create a society where all are equal," she said.

She also recounted the attack on her and her party workers at the Lucknow guest house when BSP was poised to form the government for the first time in Uttar Pradesh, alleging that Samajwadi Party had engineered the attack, "but I was saved due to the blessings of crores of poor people".

Similarly, in 2003, the then BJP-led government, "with a malicious intent", ordered a CBI probe into her so-called disproportionate wealth, she said.

By giving political colour to even the smallest of the matters, the opposition was attempting to destabilize her government, Mayawati said. Even some of the people in the media, with a casteist mentality, were publishing a distorted picture, she added. "But let me make it clear, that I am not going to get cowed down by such things.

This is because, unlike leaders of other parties, I have not come into politics through a legacy but (I came) through working in party and working at village level," she said, without referring to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. "At no cost will I kneel down before the opposition."

PTI