Lucknow

After accepting a garland of currency notes instead of flowers at the Bahujan Samaj Party rally to celebrate its silver jubilee on Monday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati chose to train her guns on the Congress rather than the Samajwadi Party (SP) or BJP. Seemingly rattled by the Congress resurgence in the state, she sought to belittle general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s visits to Dalit homes by saying, “Though he eats and sleeps in Dalit homes, his party has done nothing for the constituency.”

Though Mayawati spared the SP her barbs, its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav lambasted the BSP extravaganza in Parliament. “While Bareilly is on fire, the Mayawati government is spending Rs. 200 crore on a rally,” he said. No BSP leader was willing to reveal how much money the party had spent.

But it was an event to drive home the message that the BSP stood by the Dalit cause.

Addressing lakhs of party cadres and supporters, Mayawati, said, “Till I’m alive, I’ll continue to work for the Dalit movement and ensure that they hold  their heads high. Though the BSP  is  now  a  sarva  samaj  (all communities)  party,  I  am proud of the Dalits and vow to take the mission started by Kanshi Ram forward.” The  BSP chief also used the occasion to rebut the opposition’s charge that she  had spent huge amounts of public money to have her own statues built. “I would like to ask which book of law states that statues of living persons cannot be erected.” Exhorting party workers to  spread the  Dalit  movement all over India, Mayawati  said,  “We  started  from  scratch 25 years ago. Today, we are in power in the country’s biggest state. When we celebrate the party's golden jubilee, our achievement  should be much higher because by then the party will have a national base.”
(With inputs from HTC, Delhi)