By IANS,
New Delhi : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati Sunday promised to rid the national capital of crime if her party was voted to power in next week’s assembly elections.
“Despite Delhi falling within the jurisdiction of the Congress government in the state and the centre, they are incapable of tackling the dismal law and order situation. If BSP comes to power, criminals will be in jails and not outside,” she said to applause from a crowd of thousands at Trilokpuri in east Delhi.
The BSP is contesting all the 70 seats in Delhi assembly election.
She also described the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main contestants, as parties of the rich while, she claimed, her party stands for the common people.
“The Congress and the BJP are the rich man’s parties. The BSP wants to win elections on the basis of the common man’s support. We are the common man’s party,” Mayawati said.
She said if Delhi wanted development and solution to its problems, “you will have to ensure that the BJP, the Congress and their allies are defeated and the BSP is voted to power in Delhi.”
Mayawati, who successfully experimented caste politics based on a Brahmin-Dalit equation in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election last year, said there will not be any discrimination between people on caste or religious lines if the BSP came to power.
“Our party ensures that no one in the state is discriminated against on grounds of religion or caste,” she said.
Talking about the social situation in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati said: “We empower the Dalits, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, who have been discriminated against in the past and there had been no improvement in their status.”
Spelling out the populist measures being taken by her government in her state, Mayawati said: “In Uttar Pradesh, the children of the poor have more opportunities in education. The enrolment has increased. We are even giving free coaching to aspirants of IAS, IPS and other government posts.”
“Two-bedroom flats are being constructed and given to the homeless, even the standard of living of villagers has improved drastically,” she said.
Comparing her administration with the earlier Samajwadi Party (SP) administration, Mayawati said after the BSP came to power in the state, crime has reduced, especially crime against women.
“If you compare BSP’s regime in Uttar Pradesh to the earlier party’s, one can see how mafia and caste-based violence was prevalent in earlier times,” she said.
Her remarks were frequently applauded by her supporters who came on foot, in buses, vans and trucks. Nearly 20,000 enthusiastic people poured in from Delhi and its outskirts to hear Mayawati.
The grounds where the rally took place wore a festive look as people, especially women and children, wore caps and scarves and brandished banners and flags – all with the BSP election symbol of elephant and in blue, the party colour – and eagerly awaited their “behenji”, as she is affectionately referred to, to speak.
“We support behenji because she works for the poor and the neglected like us. She works for women,” said a woman holding a BSP flag in the crowd.