 "Mayawati")
To counter the ruling Samajwadi Party's (SP's) pre-poll promise of free smart phones in run to the 2017 Uttar Pradesh elections, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Sunday upped the ante by promising cash dole to eligible poor families.
Addressing a rally in the western UP district of Saharanpur, Mayawati said that she would not toe the line of SP by promising free laptop as done before in the 2012 UP polls or mobile phones this time round, but instead provide hard cash in the hands of the poor, so that they could spend according to their discretion and needs.
Besides, the BSP president said that her party would not promise to hand out unemployment allowance after coming to power, but strive for permanent jobs for people in the public and private sectors.
Meanwhile, she invoked the Ayodhya incident to caution Muslims against her political adversaries, including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), SP and Congress. She said that the disputed structure was demolished when Congress, which could have preempted the incident by imposing President's rule in UP, was ruling at the Centre.
Mayawati listed several communal incidents that took place in India during the Congress' regimes in the past, while highlighting no such untoward happenings had occurred in the state under her rule.
Taking a jibe at the ongoing 'Khat Sabhas' of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi in UP, she noted the party's condition was so pathetic that its top leadership was forced to visit the nooks and corners of the state.
Attacking BJP, Mayawati said that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre had failed to fulfil its promises made before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls with regards to inflation control, jobs, social security, housing, power etc.
Meanwhile, she advocated reservations to the upper castes' poor, while cautioning that other parties were conspiring to abolish the facility of reservation.
Mayawati asserted if BSP came to power in UP, she would become the chief minister even as she scoffed at alleged rumours that her lieutenant Naseemuddin Siddiqui would be sworn in to the high office if BSP secured majority in the 2017 polls.
