COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

No bias against upper castes in ticket distribution: Mayawati

Bahujan Samaj Party vice-president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati has denied that she or BSP chief Kanshi Ram had ever stated that her party would not give tickets to upper caste nominees for the general election.

She told newspersons the report was ''not only wrong and distorted, but was politically motivated and mischievous''.

She claimed her party had always given tickets to high caste people, according to their percentage in the population. She reiterated her party slogan "Jis ki jitni sankhaya bhari, uski utni bhagedari" (A share in proportion to the number).

Asked who she proposed to put up against BJP leader and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mayawati said the BSP would field a "very strong" candidate but declined to reveal the name at present.

She announced that her party would hold Bhaichara Banao (cultivate brotherhood) rallies all over the state starting with one addressed by her on January 17 at Ghaziabad. Kanshi Ram would not attend that meeting due to some prior engagements at Ghaziabad but would join her to address the people at all the other places, she said.

According to the schedule, the rallies are to be held at Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar and Agra on January 18, at Orai, Kanpur city and Allahabad city on January 19 and Varanasi, Mau, Gorakhpur and Faizabad on January 20.

On January 21, the last day of this campaign, rallies are to be held at Sitapur, Bareilly and Dhampur.

Tell us what you think of this report