In maiden rally, Mayawati shy of attacking Narendra Modi

In her first rally in poll-bound Gujarat on Friday, former UP chief minister and BSP chief Mayawati avoiding any direct attack on Chief Minister Narendra Modi but urged the dalits to vote for her party if they wanted to live a life of "self-respect and dignity".

She was addressing a rally at the Gujarat University ground here.

Mayawati, however, said that Modi, in his party's election manifesto, had copied the housing scheme that her government in UP had launched a few years ago for poor people.

The former UP CM made no mention of the recent deaths of three dalit youths in police firing in Thangadh.

Reading out mostly from her written speech, Maya said that if her party was elected to power in Gujarat, she would run the state government here on the pattern on which her party ran the government in UP for the benefit of all communities, particularly for the welfare of dalits.

BSP does not have much influence in Gujarat and all its candidates had lost in the 2007 Assembly elections. It is contesting 165 seats on its own this time.

"You (dalits) have tried Congress for a long time and BJP for the last one decade in Gujarat, but there has been no change in your conditions. If you want your uplift and development, vote for BSP," she said, adding that the dalits should not accept any kind of inducements like liquor or money for votes.

Mayawati was accompanied by BSP national general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Satish Mishra. In his speech, Mishra said BSP stood not only for Dalits but for the poor from all communities.

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