Lucknow, January 15
Venting her ire on the Election Commission, Mayawati today accused it of buckling under Congress pressure and dared it to order the draping of the party's 'hand' symbol like it has done for her statues and the BSP symbol ‘elephant’ in Uttar Pradesh.

The BSP chief said that following its constitutional responsibility with honesty, the EC should have issued directives to get Congress' poll symbol and RLD's symbol 'handpump' covered like the statues of the elephant.

"If the EC does not take right decisions regarding symbols of these two parties, then the people will consider this decision (with regard to BSP) taken with an anti-dalit and casteist mentality and under pressure of the Congress-led government at the Centre," she said.

“Khula hathi lakh ka, band haathi sava lakh ka (An exposed elephant is worth a lakh and a covered one is worth a lakh and quarter),” she quipped, while profusely thanking the Chief Election Commissioner in a tongue-in-cheek manner for its “one-sided” decision of draping elephant’s statues along with her statues installed in various memorials and parks across the country.

“The decision has given free publicity to the party symbol across TV channels and the media, which would have otherwise cost a lot of money during election time. It has also succeeded in enthusing the party cadre and candidates to re-dedicate themselves to fight this grievous injustice, which is  another example of the anti-Dalit and casteist mind-set of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre and the opposition parties in the state,” Mayawati pointed out.

“If the EC really wanted to ensure a level playing field, it should have covered every single hand pump - the RLD symbol - installed at government expense in every village in the state. It should have also covered the 45-feet-high and 50 tonne heavy hand installed at the sprawling park in poll-bound Chandigarh, which has also been built at government expense,” she said.

Admitting to having selected for the 2007 Assembly elections some “selfish people” who had focused on building their own fortunes rather than of their constituencies, BSP chief Mayawati today said such people had even managed to spoil her party cadres and dent the party’s and government’s image.

She went to great lengths to justify the BSP’s recent attempt to salvage the party with a massive ‘clean-up exercise’ involving sacking of 23 ministers and dozens of MLAs. “Last time, some people with dubious credentials from other parties had managed to fool simple people of my party to acquire tickets and even win the elections. However, instead of working for development of the area and its people, they had worked for their personal gain, in the process, hurting the image of the party and government.”

“Not just that, the influence and company of such people spoiled my party’s cadre, largely transforming them to become like them. With great effort, I have managed to get rid of such MLAs and ministers. Special care has been taken to get only the “right” people as party candidates this time,” explained the party chief.

Displaying an introspective mood on her 56th birthday, Chief Minister Mayawati today released the complete list of 403 BSP candidates for the forthcoming election. She said this time, special care had been taken to select candidates with a clean image committed to the BSP movement.

Wearing lotus pink salwar-kameez and glittering diamond jewellery reserved for joyous occasions, the birthday girl this time had the bash at the flower-bedecked BSP party office built next to her 13 Mall Avenue residence allotted to her as an ex-CM.

Of the 403 seats, 88 (21.83 per cent) have been given to the Dalits, 113 seats (28 per cent) to OBCs, 85 seats (21.09 per cent) to Muslims and 77 seats (19.10 per cent) to Brahmins, 33 seats (8.18 per cent) to Rajputs and the remaining are for communities like the Kayasths, Vaishyas and even Punjabis.