The Hindu : Front Page : Mayawati asks: why can’t I become prime minister?

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Mayawati asks: why can’t I become prime minister?

Atiq Khan

Unveils agenda for the next Lok Sabha elections

— Photo: Subir Roy

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and the former External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, at a BSP national convention in Lucknow on Saturday.

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati on Saturday said she was in the race for becoming the Prime Minister. “If a “Dalit ki beti” [daughter of a Dalit] can become the Chief Minister of India’s largest and most populous State, why can’t the same “Dalit ki beti” become the Prime Minister,” Ms. Mayawati asked as she unveiled her agenda for the next Lok Sabha elections and the Vidhan Sabha polls in five States.

Ms. Mayawati, who took the attack to the Congress-led UPA government and the Bharatiya Janata Party, said there was a possibility that she might be jailed in the disproportionate assets (DA) case, or even killed by terrorists or naxalites. The BSP supremo cautioned her support base that in the event of her being sent to jail, or killed before the Lok Sabha elections, the momentum should not be lost. Instead, the Bahujan “samaj” should rise as one to wreak vengeance on the Opposition parties and ensure that the BSP did even better in the polls.

Campaign launched

The Chief Minister launched the BSP’s poll campaign, a three-phase countrywide mass awareness agitation, at the party’s national convention here. In the first phase, the awareness agitation will be held in all the district headquarters in the State from September 1 to September 30.

The second phase from October 1 to October 31 will be taken to all the Vidhan Sabha constituencies in the country. The final phase from November 1 to December 31 will cover all the district headquarters in the country.

Ms. Mayawati said the BSP would contest all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and the names of the candidates have been finalised.

In her 90-minute address to the convention, she said she would remain committed to the welfare of the Dalits and the other downtrodden sections, and the religious minorities. Their conditions would not improve till the BSP came to power at the Centre.

She lashed out at the parties which opposed her becoming Prime Minister before the July 22 trust vote. It was due to Bhim Rao Ambedkar’s struggle for the uplift of the depressed that people from backward communities such as Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh became Chief Ministers.

Ms. Mayawati said she and her “samaj” were proud of the fact she was born in a Dalit household, and it was a matter of pride that she was also a daughter of India. Accusing the Congress of leading a political conspiracy in her parental village, Badalpur, on the issue of paying compensation to the farmers, she said propaganda has been launched to ‘defame her government.’ The CBI charge sheet in the DA case was another instance of a political conspiracy, Ms. Mayawati said, adding that she was forced to challenge the case in the Supreme Court. Holding the Congress responsible for the soaring prices, poverty and unemployment, the Chief Minister assailed Rahul Gandhi for staging a ‘political drama’ in Parliament on July 22 and during his stay in Dalit households while conducting road shows.

She warned Mr. Mulayam Singh that the BSP workers would give a fitting reply if attempts were made to desecrate her statues in Lucknow.

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