Weighing her options days after she backed Sonia Gandhi for fielding Pratibha Patil in the Presidential polls, BSP chief Mayawati today attacked the Congress over its handling of the nuclear deal and the Ram Sethu controversy. She asked people to get ready for early LS polls.

Addressing a massive BSP rally in Lucknow on founder Kanshi Ram’s death anniversary, Mayawati hit out at the UPA’s National Rural Employment Guarantee programme, saying it could not be a permanent solution and would not eradicate poverty.

In her first comments on the nuclear deal, Mayawati said the Congress should have taken all parties into confidence before initiating talks on such an important issue. She also slammed the Congress for “tarnishing history” by filing a “wrong affidavit” in court in the Ram Sethu case.

As her supporters chanted ‘Delhi ki majboori hai, Mayawati jaroori hai’ and ‘UP hui hamaari, hai Delhi ki taiyyari’, Mayawati cautioned them against the “four Ms — money, mafia, media and middleman”. She said the “four Ms” would try their best to stop her party’s victory roll.

She said the Congress and BJP had tried hard to give the BSP a bad name among upper castes: “Yeh Congress aur BJP hai jisne tilak, tarazu, talwar ka naara uthaa kar BSP ko upper caste mein badnam kiya.”