She feared that the Opposition will raise these issues in the coming Lok Sabha elections, and the media would give unnecessary coverage to them. She defended her action of transferring funds to her brother Anand Kumar. She said there is no place for “pariwar” in her life, “unlike other politicians”, but she gave some money to her brother to secure his future.

“I was seriously ill with anaemia when Anand came to my rescue,” said Mayawati. She said Kumar, a Government servant, left his job and looked after her domestic affairs as well as the Kanshi Ram, who was staying at Mayawati’s New Delhi residence at that time. “This enabled me to carry on with my work smoothly,” Mayawati said.

The party workers had given her some money as “gift”, of which she gave some to Kumar to start a business, she added.

“Who would have looked after his family after my death? That was why I gave him money to start some business,” said Mayawati.

She also spoke about the lease deed of Bahujan Prerna Kendra and the rumours regarding the bungalows she purchased, besides coming to the rescue of Cabinet Minister S C Mishra by denying allegations of giving important posts to the latter’s relatives.

Regarding the Prerna Trust deed, the CM made it clear that no one associated with the Trust can sell or let out any the portion of the Kendra hence, the Bahujan Prerna Kendra will remain as it is.

Defending S C Mishra, Mayawati said media reports on his relatives getting plum positions in the state government are not true.

“His wife was not nominated by anyone. If anyone related to him had been posted anywhere, it was solely based on merit,” said Mayawati. She added that there were others in her party whose brothers or wives had become legislators on BSP tickets, but no one focuses on them.

Talking about her bungalows, the Chief Minister said, “I have already told you all about my property in my March 1 rally as to why and how I bought all the property.” She refused to elaborate on it. On March 1, Mayawati had said the money to buy the same was given to her by her partymen.

Mayaspeak

• w Police recruitment scam: I have full sympathy for both the suspended officers and terminated recruits. But probe was a must to ensure that such irregularities never occur in future. To save their jobs, the officers danced to the tunes of their political bosses. I assure that whenever new recruitment starts, the terminated candidates will be considered sympathetically.

• w Student union polls: I am not against student union polls and my party wants it, but in a cleaner manner. To stop entry of criminals, there should be a regulation and it is under process.

• w Law and order: Media is painting a wrong picture on the law and order situation of the state. In my regime, criminal incidents can be easily registered. Earlier it was not so. If you register the incidents at a regular basis, the crime graph will naturally go up. But there are speedy disposal of cases too. Dadua was killed in my regime.

• w Power: Power problem was acute when I came to power and there was no money to import it. My government took loan to pay for the electricity imported from the Centre. People should be have faith in me. It may take some time but there will improvement in this sector in the coming years.

• w Small states: I am not averse to the idea of formation of smaller states like Harit Pradesh, Bundelkhand and East UP.