The Hindu : We will clear reservation backlog, says Mayawati

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004

National

National

We will clear reservation backlog, says Mayawati

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MARCH 22. The national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Mayawati, said here tonight that her party will clear the reservation backlog within one year if voted to power.

Addressing an election rally, the BSP chief said agitations and struggles would not be successful to get the backlog in reservation cleared as the country was ruled by "manuvadis" who did not want to implement reservation. "We have shown that we will implement what we say. We have shown in Uttar Pradesh that Dalits can be uplifted in a short time."

The BJP and the Congress were worried over the increasing base of the party all over the country, she claimed. She said the roping in of actors, actresses, singers and dancers by the Congress and the BJP would not succeed, as their popularity would not translate into votes.

Listing the achievements, welfare measures and schemes launched by the BSP during her rule in Uttar Pradesh, she said it was the BSP that had created a "feel-good factor" in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP was claiming credit for this, she said.

Justifying the decision to contest over 300 Parliamentary seats and Assembly seats in several States during the coming elections alone, she said the bitter experiences after alliances with the Congress and the BJP in Uttar Pradesh forced the party to go it alone. "We found that while the alliance partners such as the Congress and the BJP benefited, the BSP was the loser.

Lashing out at the Congress and the BJP, she said they displayed the `manuwadi' attitude and were preventing the BSP from coming to power. They did not have any agenda or programme for the uplift of the Dalits, whose plight had been caused by the `manuvadi' system.

Ms. Mayawati appealed to the voters to elect the candidates of the party contesting the Parliamentary seats from the State. The president of the State BSP, Vishwanathan, presided.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National