Making her first public appearance after the BSP’s unimpressive performance in the Lok Sabha election, UP Chief Minister Mayawati on Friday said she stood by her party’s programme of Sarva Samaj and

will keep fighting the “casteist mindset” of the Opposition which prevented her from becoming the prime minister. Recalling her party’s success in the Assembly elections in 2007, she said that as her public meetings drew impressive gatherings, the Congress, BJP and the SP joined hands to defeat BSP’s candidates in several constituencies. According to her, their sole aim was to stop a ‘Dalit’s daughter’ from becoming the PM of the country.

On rallies organised by her party across the state on Friday, Mayawati said these rallies had nothing to do with the birthday celebrations of the “yuvraj (Rahul Gandhi) of the Congress”, but were an awareness campaign against the tactics of Opposition parties.