Minutes after she pledged unconditional, outside support of her 21 MPs to the new government of Manmohan Singh who she said had called her his “younger sister”, BSP chief Mayawati’s remarks to her party leaders made it clear that her motive wasn’t so simple.

Speaking to BSP leaders — she made these remarks after she had asked the media to leave following her announcement on support to the Congress-led UPA — Mayawati said she had been “framed” in the CBI’s Taj Corridor case, that the Congress wanted to use her former Principal Secretary P L Punia, approver in the case and now elected on a Congress ticket from Barabanki, against her.

She said the Congress’s impressive show in Uttar Pradesh wasn’t because of the “charisma of any Yuvraj (a reference to Rahul Gandhi) or achievement of the UPA government” but due to the “indirect help” it got from the Kalyan Singh-Mulayam Singh tie-up.

She said that in 2004, Sonia Gandhi spoke to her on phone, assuring that justice would be done in the Taj Corridor case. “Lekin Congress ne nyay dene ke badle uljha diya,” she said, referring to the disproportionate assets case against her.

As The Indian Express reported in its CBI series, the fate of Mayawati’s cases have been decided by the kind of relationship she has had with the ruling party at the Centre.

Targeting Punia, she said: “He remained my PA three times in the past. He is a native of Haryana. His caste is Dhanuk (he’s not from my community).”

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