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BSP to go it alone in HP, Gujarat: Maya
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 27
In the wake of the speculation over mid-term poll following stand-off between the Congress and the Left on the nuclear deal and the upcoming Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, UP Chief Minister and BSP supremo Mayawati said here today that the party would go it alone in the Assembly and the mid-term elections if held in near future.

“Buoyed by the success of the social engineering formula in UP the party has decided to replicate the formula in other states, including Punjab and Haryana,” Mayawati said at a meet-the-press programme organised at the Chandigarh Press Club here. The BSP believed in “forging alliances with the electorate” and not with the political parties, she quipped.

The party will try to field candidates on all seats in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, she said while urging the media to be fair in the run-up these elections.

However, she kept the ruling Congress-led UPA government guessing about her stand on the nuclear deal saying that the party would make its stand clear inside and outside Parliament at an “appropriate time”.

Answering a question on her prime ministerial ambitions, a beaming Mayawati said she would not “disappoint” her supporters and well-wishers. Asked to commit to a deadline on the issue, she said it all depended on the preparations by the party cadre to capture power in New Delhi.

Demanding a fresh CBI inquiry into the Gujarat riots in the wake of the Tehelka sting operation, the BSP leader said the new facts necessitated a new probe aimed at handing out a strict punishment to the guilty so that such incidents were not repeated.

Advocating quota for the upper caste poor, she said the UP government had approved of 10 per cent reservations. On the issues of 33 per cent reservation for women in legislature and political parties, Mayawati said women should get 50 per cent reservation as they constituted about half of country’s population.

Mayawati said the decision on the entry of MNCs and other major players in the retail sector in the most populous state of the country would be decided while keeping public interest in mind. However, an improved law and order situation in UP was bound to attract major investments in the state, she said.

Meanwhile, Mayawati announced a grant of Rs 30 lakh for the Press Club. Earlier, Balwant Takshak and Nanki Hans, president and secretary-general of the club welcomed Mayawati.