Give me UP as birthday gift: Mayawati

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today pressed for reservation for backward Muslims and also said a clear victory for BSP in the upcoming state assembly elections would be the best birthday gift that her supporters can give for her next year. The BSP supremo also lashed out at the Congress saying the party has “lost its mental balance” due to which it sees “elephant” eating money, in a rebuff to Rahul Gandhi’s remarks that an “elephant” (BSP poll symbol) in Lucknow was eating away all the money sent by the Centre for the poor in UP. [caption id=“attachment_159620” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Mayawati said that for providing a reservation, a national policy should be formulated.  PTI”]  [/caption] Mayawati was addressing a rally of Muslim, Kshatriya and Vaish communities here to seek their support at the polls. “BSP government favours quota for Muslims. The Centre should amend the constitution and increase 27 percent quota of OBCs to include Muslims in it. Our party will support it,” she said. Anticipating announcement of dates for UP assembly polls soon, Mayawati told her supporters that they will not be able to celebrate her birthday falling on 15 January in a grand way and helping poor as they used to do in previous years. “Hence celebrate birthday privately, for which I thank you in advance. I would ask you to gift me UP’s power once again. Victory with absolute majority in assembly polls would be the best gift,” she added. Mayawati said that for providing a reservation, a national policy should be formulated so that an identical system should be in place in the entire country. Alleging that Congress always betrayed Muslims, she said that it used them as mere vote banks and did nothing for their welfare. Reaching out to Muslims, she condemned association of the community with terrorists. Terrorists did not have any caste and associating them with a particular community was wrong, she added. Referring to Rahul’s remarks against her government, Mayawati said, “The Congress, it seems has lost mental balance due to which it sees elephant eating money. The party, which failed to do any good to people in its 40 years rule is seeking their support again for forming government in the state for five years and claiming to change their fortunes.” PTI