Confident Mayawati takes battle to opposition camp

Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh: If anyone was in the slightest doubt of the celebrity status of Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, the explosion of people—men, women and children—at the massive ground in Sitapur would blow them away. Kicking off her election campaign for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election 2012, the chief minister lived up to her queen size image with 25,000-strong show of strength at her maiden rally. District Sitapur, which has nine assembly constituencies and is going to polls in the first phase of polls on 8 February, is a BSP stronghold. The party won all but two seats here in the 2007 assembly election. [caption id=“attachment_200435” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Going alone.”]  [/caption] The elephant is a massive hit here among the crowds, notwithstanding Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s tireless efforts to cast it as ‘money eating’ animal. She had the crowd in thrall during her almost one-hour long speech. She tackled head-on the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) corruption scandal that has hit her government hard and blamed the Congress for using it to score electoral points. “The speed with which the CBI is pursuing the NRHM scandal is unmatched by its investigation of the 2G or the Commonwealth scam…The NRHM is a Central government-sponsored programme and it is the Centre that should be held more responsible than the state government for the corruption in it. Why is the CBI not pursuing central government ministers, cabinet ministers, who are involved in the scandal?” thundered Mayawati. The Congress-led government at the Centre remained at the centre of her attack, while she also took on the BJP and to a lesser extent the Samajwadi Party in her election speech. Pleased by the sea of people before her, she began her speech by thanking her supporters for showing up ‘in lakhs’. Emphasising that her party was going it alone without any alliance with any political party, Mayawati detailed the achievements of the BSP-led government in its “historical upliftment of Dalits, Muslims and backward castes”. Sticking to her hugely successful ‘social engineering’ strategy, she said her party has addressed and is committed to the “needs of the upper caste”. Addressing what has been a pet theme in Rahul’s speeches—lack of power supply in the state—Mayawati promised, to much cheering and applause from the crowd, 24-hour power supply if they voted her back to power. The Centre earned her wrath for sitting on the state-approved plan to divide the state into four parts, for its economic policies that she blamed for price rise and for not releasing Central funds for the development of the state. She spent a good part of the speech stating the many efforts made by her government to maintain law and order and putting an end to “goonda raj” - a direct reference to the Samajwadi party-led government which she defeated in May 2007. She criticised the Centre’s announcement of the 4.5 percent reservation for Muslims in the OBC quota, saying that “it was reducing the OBC quota” and that the Muslims deserved a separate and more substantial reservation policy. Calling the attack on her by oppostion parties a ‘conspiracy’ to bring her down, she listed the corruption scandals that have rocked Congress-led governments at Centre and the states and the BJP government in Karnaraka. She returned to her pet subject of the ‘CBI being used a political tool by the Congress’ saying that although the Lokpal movement had demanded for the an independent CBI the Centre had not given in. Speaking to her core constituency, Mayawati said, “The opposition parties are unable to stomach the fact that the ‘Dalit ki beti’ is running the government.” She warned her supporters to not fall for the Congress campaign rhetoric. Ridiculing Rahul Gandhi’s widely reported promise of providing employment to the youth of UP in their home state, Mayawati pointed fingers at the Congress’s 40 year rule and its impact, or lack of it, on UP. “The Congress party is not known for keeping its promises. We, on the other hand, deliver more than we promise. We speak less and do more.” She rounded up her election speech by warning people what the coming to power of each opposition party would mean for UP. The return of Samajwadi Party would mean the return of goonda raj, she said. Telling the crowd that the Congress in power would mean a repeat of its record of the last 40 years, she also brought up the issue FDI in retail equating it with take over of business by multinational companies The BJP in power, said Mayawati, would mean the return of communal politics and disharmony. Bringing up the Election Commission’s decision to cover up her statues, she said, “You have been hurt and are upset by this decision. Express your sadness by making sure the BSP candidates win by a massive margin.” She concluded her speech by telling the crowd that the energy she saw in them had convinced her that they would vote her back to power. The crowds ecstatic by their leader’s speech spontaneously broke into a song and dance as she took off her helicopter to her next destination, Barabanki. Shamim Siddiqui, a business from Sitapur and a supporter of Mayawati, panned the efforts by the Congress to make inroads in the state. “The Congress is all drama. There are 1.20 lakh Muslims in Sitapur and 92,000 Dalits. I can guarantee you, their vote is for the BSP.” Rajkumar Ragvanshi, 27, a traffic constable posted at the rally was equally certain of the BSP supremo’s return to power. “During SP’s rule we would get rations once every six months. After Mayawatiji came, we are getting rations regularly every month. The poor are happy with her.”