BSP to contest all assembly seats in Jharkhand

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati said here that her party would contest all assembly seats in Jharkhand.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati said here that her party would contest all assembly seats in Jharkhand.

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Addressing a rally Saturday to mark the launch of BSP's election campaign, at the Shaheed Maidan here, Mayawati said: "If BSP were to form a government in this state, you can rest assured that you will also witness a transformation of this state in the same manner as I have done in Uttar Pradesh."

She sought to blame the backwardness of Jharkhand on "misrule by different political parties, particularly the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)."

Mayawati added: "Successive governments have only used the huge population of tribals and minorities in this state only as a vote bank."

Accusing successive governments of having "not done anything to take this state out of its economic and social backwardness", the BSP supremo said: "Poverty and unemployment had driven some people of this area to turn into Naxalites."

She however sought to add: "If BSP were to come to power here, I would make it a point to bring these misdirected Naxalites back to the mainstream of development."

The five-phased assembly polls will start in Jharkhand Nov 25.