Reserving most of her venom for the Congress and the United Progressive Alliance the Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Ms Mayawati accused Congress leaders of deliberately fuelling unrest amongst farmers on the issue of land acquisition in her home state.
“It is in fact the Congress-led UPA government that has failed to legislate on a uniform acquisition policy for all states. But its people are going about inciting trouble on the very issue in Uttar Pradesh,” she told a mammoth party gathering in Chandigarh on Sunday evidently alluding to the recent forays into Greater Noida areas by AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi and other Congress men that put her administration in a spot.
She said, “Ever since the BSP came to power in Uttar Pradesh, opposition parties that are casteist in their mindset have consistently tried to blow up minor incidents in an attempt to destabilize us. But they must know that the BSP knows how to fight and will never let them succeed.”
The BSP Supremo who ably succeeded and in many ways bettered her mentor Babu Kanshi Ram, was evidently perturbed by the recent incidents at Bhatta and Parsaul villages and keen to deflect at least a portion of the blame on Delhi.
Touching upon everything from the 2G scam, the Centre’s failure to bring back black money stored in foreign banks to the unprecedented, recent petrol price hike, she promised that in the coming months her party would lead public agitations to expose the failures of the UPA.
And while on the subject of corruption, Ms Mayawati charged the Congress of deploying the Central Bureau of Investigation to foist “false” disproportionate assets cases against her. But vowing never to give in to what she said was “abject blackmail” the BSP leader said, “I know how to struggle in troubled times. I did not come to power like the leaders of other parties who inherited it.”
Analysts said Mayawati’s current diatribe against the Congress is perhaps indicative of the enhanced threat she perceives from the party in forthcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, the BSP had virtually pulled out every stop to organise the most extravagant political rally ever seen in Chandigarh for their leader.
Besides gigantic LED screens projecting Mayawati’s image to every possible corner of the 2,50,000 square feet waterproof tent erected for the event, the entire stage and even the portable toilets set up for the leaders were fitted with air-conditioners. Even the audience was kept reasonably cool with hundreds of powerful fans that intermittently sprayed mists of chilled water.
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