Mayawati asks Dalits, Muslims to vote unitedly for BSP

BSP chief Mayawati today asked Dalits and Muslims to support her party unitedly and wholeheartedly "so that the party gets enough seats" to elect "a daughter of the Dalit class" as the Prime Minister.
Addressing a largely-attended election meeting here, the former UP Chief Minister said no change has come in economic condition of Dalits and minorities during the over 50-year rule of Congress and six years of BJP at the Centre.
It was only the BSP that could address the grievances of the Dalits, the poor and the minorities, she said and urged the people to vote for her party.

Attacking BJP, she said it was the party of capitalists and "dhanna seths with whose money the elections were being fought".
"If the party wins it will work for those who paid for their election expenses," she said. Coming down heavily on Narendra Modi, she said the BJP prime ministerial candidate had now started talking about his Dalit root, but had not so far specified which caste among the Dalits he hailed from.
Slamming Modi over the 2002 riots, she said the country would be plunged into communal riots and would be destroyed if Modi even by mistake becomes the Prime Minister.

She said there was neither communal amity nor law and order in Uttar Pradesh and held the SP government responsible for the Muzaffarnagar riots, in which "both Muslims and Hindus had suffered".

Listing out the "works" done by the government when she was in power four times in the state, Mayawati said good work for "sarva samaj", especially the Dalits, minorities and the poor of the upper castes, would be extended to the whole country, if BSP got the reins of government at the Centre.
She said as many as 17 Muslims had been given BSP tickets for the Lok Sabha polls, and claimed in Firozabad she had to change the nominee after the SP "government wrongly put the party's Muslim candidate in jail and harassed another Muslim hopeful" forcing her to give the ticket to a kshatriya.

Taking a dig at RLD candidate Amar Singh, she said he was bringing "nachne, gaane wale log (dancers and singers)" from Mumbai to woo the crowds, and added while these artistes could provide entertainment, they could not get votes for Singh.
Mayawati said, "Jis party mein woh (Amar Singh) jaata hai, us party ko khatam kar deta hai (He destroys whichever party he goes to)". "Even Ajit Singh (RLD chief) himself will not be able to win with Amar Singh around him," she said.
Mayawati ended her speech with a fervent appeal to her supporters to send enough members to the Lok Sabha so that a "Dalit varg ki beti Pradhan Mantri ban sake (daughter of the Dalit class can become the Prime Minister".

Earlier, she also addressed rallies at Firozabad and Mathura.