Vote for BSP so I can give I-Day speech from Red Fort: Maya

BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday voiced her prime ministerial ambitions by asking party workers to ensure a "big victory" for it in the next Lok Sabha elections so that she can deliver the Independence Day speech from the Red Fort.

Trying to position herself for a national role, Mayawati cautioned her party cadre against becoming a "saleable commodity". "You must ensure a big victory for the BSP in the next general elections so that I can deliver Independence Day speech as the prime minister from the Red Fort," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said addressing a state-level rally of party workers here.

Launching her party's campaign for the next general election, she promised, among many things, to take the issue of reservation in promotions, purposely stalled by a nexus of Congress and BJP, to its logical end. "Due to BSP's effort it (Bill on reservation) was passed in the Rajya Sabha, but the two parties sabotaged it from being taken up in the Lok Sabha. The SC ruled against it because the Congress didn't defend it hard," she said.

Trying to strike a chord with the non-Dalit backward classes, she claimed quota allotted to the OBCs was shrinking. "The Congress and BJP have policies meant to help the dhannaseths (rich people)," she added. She also decried the FDI policy and corruption during the UPA regime.

Listing her other priorities she promised to build memorials to three Dalit icons — Mahatma Phule, Shahu Maharaj and Babasaheb Ambedkar — on 100 acre each. "It is because of the BSP's push that the Indu Mill land could be had for Ambedkar memorial," she said. She alleged that atrocities were being committed on Dalits in Maharashtra on a daily basis. "It will stop only when the BSP comes to power," she added.

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