By IANS
Jammu : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati unfolded a new social vision here Sunday, calling for reservation for poverty-stricken people in upper castes and religious minorities.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president said that the goal of social justice would not be met unless all downtrodden sections of the polity got equal opportunities and that was possible by offering them reservations in jobs and admissions.
Mayawati was addressing a rally in the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir. Gujjars and nomadic Bakerwals were present in noticeable numbers and frequently raised slogans hailing the Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
Mayawati castigated the Congress and the earlier BJP-led governments at the centre for ignoring the masses and allowing themselves to be guided by the interests of the business houses. “They have become parties of the business houses,” she said, adding: “We are the party of the people. And that is the difference.”
She did not talk about the Kashmir issue, and terrorism also did not find any mention in her speech.
This was the BSP’s biggest ever show here in years and its state-level leaders projected the rally as the starting point for the party’s election campaign in Jammu and Kashmir.
The BSP has already announced that it would contest all the 87 seats in the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir due in 2008.
The party won one seat in the 2002 elections and four in the 1996 elections before that.