BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday promised to work for a separate state comprising districts of western Uttar Pradesh and fulfil the "longstanding demand" of setting up a bench of the Allahabad High Court in Meerut, if voted to power at the Centre.
Addressing an election rally in support of her party nominee from the Meerut Lok Sabha seat, the BSP chief attacked the Congress and BJP and also targeted the Samajwadi Party (SP) on the issue of reservation, alleging the SP does not want the people belonging to SC/ST communities to get quota benefits.
She also said that her party, if voted to power, will work to fulfil the demands and address problems of the region. "We will take positive steps with regards to your longstanding demand of a Allahabad High Court bench here in Meerut like that in Lucknow," she said.
"The central government has not been paying attention to it but when we come to power at the Centre, we will take positive steps in this regard," Mayawati said.
Referring to how her government in Uttar Pradesh had passed a resolution for a separate state, which was sent to the Centre, she said, "Since the beginning, our party has been of the view that the western region should be made a separate state for better development of the region.
"We had got a resolution passed by the state assembly and sent to the central government but they did not act on it. When our party comes to power at the Centre, your western UP will be made a separate state," she said.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister alleged that the quota facility meant for the Dalits, adivasis (STs) and OBCs in government jobs has not been filled up in the country for years and the quota in promotions for the SCs/STs has also been made ineffective.
"I want to remind the members of the SCs/STs that when the SP was in power in Uttar Pradesh, it had ended reservation in promotions. Will the members of these sections give even a single vote to them and waste it on a party which is bent upon finishing their reservation. The SP does not want SC/ST people to get full benefits of reservation," she said.
She also alleged that when an amendment bill for reservation in promotions was presented in the Rajya Sabha, the SP MPs had torn it. "Will such Samajwadi Party do good for the Dalits and shoshits (exploited class)?
"Not only this, the districts, parks, universities that we (BSP government) had made in the name of great men belonging to these sections of society were mostly changed by the subsequent Samajwadi Party government," she said.
She also alleged that like the Congress, the BJP's casteist and pro-capitalist thinking and policies have not helped in ensuring the real development and uplift of the poor, Dalits, adivasis, backwards, Muslims and other religious minorities among the "sarv samaj".
Telling her voters that in these Lok Sabha elections, the Congress, BJP and their supporting parties have to be stopped from coming to power, she alleged their wrong policies and working style has been tried by all.
She also warned against the "saam, daam, dand, bhed" policies allegedly being adopted by these parties to attain power.
Seeking vote for her party nominee from Meerut, Mayawati said unlike the past elections when her party had fielded Muslim candidates, it has this time given ticket to Devvrat Tyagi.
In Meerut, the BJP has fielded Arun Govil. Samajwadi Party's Sunita Verma and BSP's Devvrat Kumar Tyagi are the other prominent candidates in the fray.
The BSP chief, who reached Aligarh several hours late due to bad weather, said that voters from the Aligarh Lok Sabha seat had many times made BJP's Brahmin community candidate successful, but the public was not satisfied with his working style.
She said that had the public not got an alternative, they would have let him (BJP MP from Aligarh, Satish Gautam) win out of "compulsion", but by giving a candidate from the Brahmin community, "we have given an alternative to them, who stands with the public during their happiness and sorrows."
Regarding Aligarh's BSP candidate Hitendra Upadhyay, she said that not only Brahmins, but people from all sections of society and the Muslim community also came to Lucknow and recommended his name for the party's ticket.
In the Aligarh meeting itself, she also appealed for the victory of Hathras (SC) Lok Sabha seat candidate Hem Babu of the Dhangar community.
Also, explaining the reason for fielding a Jat candidate from Mathura, Mayawati said the people of the constituency wanted that an educated local person should be their candidate, and not an outsider, "so we have made Suresh Singh the candidate from Mathura."
In Aligarh, there are 14 candidates in the fray, including BJP's Satish Kumar Gautam, SP's Bijendra Singh and Hitendra Kumar Upadhyay of the BSP.
Voting in the second phase will take place on April 26 and it will cover eight parliamentary constituencies of Amroha, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautambuddh Nagar, Bulandshahr (SC), Aligarh and Mathura. Counting of votes will be held on June 4.
