APPEAL TO VOTERS: Bahujan Samaj Party leader and former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati responding to the crowd at an election campaign in Chennai on Saturday. — Photo: S. R. Raghunathan

CHENNAI: Only by achieving political power, the Dalits can come up in life, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati said here on Saturday.

Winding up her six-day campaign in the State, Ms. Mayawati said the late Ambedkar was convinced that the liberation of Dalits from "discrimination, unsociability and poverty" was possible only if they got the political power.

As long as the power was in the hands of "manuwadi," the discrimination of Dalits would continue. She accused the successive governments at the Centre as well as in the States of neglecting the welfare of the poor. Though the Constitution provided reservation for the Dalits in education and employment, the Government did not take steps to implement it. Still hundreds of government jobs reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Tribes remained unfilled.

In Uttar Pradesh, only after the BSP came to power welfare measures were initiated for the Dalits; about 15,000 backlog vacancies meant for them were filled. She claimed that Uttar Pradesh was the first State in the country to provide reservation for Muslims.

Declaring that her party was not against any particular community, Ms. Mayawati said that when she was Chief Minister, she provided scholarships to the poor belonging to all communities. Similarly she improved rural infrastructure and enhanced the status of poor villagers.

Appealing to the people in the State to vote for the BSP candidates who were contesting in 168 constituencies, Ms. Mayawati said her party was trying to make a beginning in the State, entering the elections in a big way. She wanted the BSP to become a major political platform for the Dalits in the State and should be strengthened to get the political power.

Suresh Mane, party coordinator for Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry, said the BSP was contesting the elections independently, as it wanted to change the political situation in the State. Criticising both the Dravidian parties for offering freebies, he said they would in no way improve the living conditions of the poor; they needed good drinking water, power and roads. Freebies would only increase the revenue of certain channels, he said.

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