M A I N   N E W S

BSP-BJP alliance in UP only
Jagmohan issue closed chapter: Maya
Tribune News Service

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati at Shimla on Friday. — Photo Anil Dayal

Shimla, August 1
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, today said the alliance between the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Lok Sabha poll would be confined only to Uttar Pradesh. She categorically stated that her party would not have any such arrangement in other states.

Talking to mediapersons on her arrival here for a cadre training camp of the BSP, she said Uttar Pradesh had been a political laboratory where her party carried out various experiments to expand its base. The successful formulae would be put in use in other states to find a foothold.

Evading queries pertaining to the controversy involving Union Minister for Tourism and Culture Jagmohan, she said it was a closed chapter. She said the issue was blown out of proportion by some “manuvadi” elements in the media, which did not want the BSP-BJP alliance to last in Uttar Pradesh. They not only distorted her statements but also even those of Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, she said, lamenting that a section of media was indulging in politicking.

Regarding the Ayodhya dispute, she said her government would abide by the court verdict. She said the BSP was a national party and was not opposed to any caste or religion. Its only objective was to establish a just social order which ensured equal rights to the deprived sections. The party’s doors were open to the people of all castes, creed and religion, including upper castes, she added.

Ms Mayawati maintained that Backward Classes, Dalits and religious minorities comprised 85 per cent of the population, but 15 per cent of “manuvadi” elements were dominating in every field, particularly politics.

Later, addressing workers, she said the struggle waged by Baba Bhim Rao Sahib Ambedkar, ensured certain constitutional rights to the “bahujan samaj” but it did not benefited much as the political power remained with the “manuvadis”.

She said the key to the speedy uplift of the “bahujan samaj” was in political power.

She said followers of Dr Ambedkar betrayed him, which is why the movement launched by him to unite the “bahujan samaj” into a political force had failed.

Ms Mayawati called for raising a cadre of 25 workers, including 20 from the “bahujan samaj” and five from other sections, in each of the 68 Assembly constituencies, to provide a base for the growth of the party. She said educated employees from the “bahujan samaj”, who had time and money must come forward to create social awakening in society so that it would be united and transformed into a political force to end the dominance of the “manuvadis”. She said “vote hamara, raj tumara” slogan should not be allowed to work any more.

It is the first major effort of the party to expand its base in the hill state. About 1000 persons converged on the state capital for the event.