Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati is keeping both the Congress and the Samajwadi Party [SP] guessing whether she will, at the BSP rally here Tuesday, withdraw support to the UPA government at the centre. The rally at the Ramabai ground will be watched keenly both by the Congress and the SP in the state as the Congress shares tentative relations with both the BSP and the SP.
The Maha Dalit rally on BSP founder Kanshi Ram’s death anniversary has been called to ‘ponder, deliberate and announce’ the BSP’s stand on issues like allowing the FDI in multi-brand retail and the diesel price hike.
Sources in the BSP said that the former chief minister is likely to come down heavily on the Congress-led alliance on a slew of economic reforms the Manmohan Singh govt recently unveiled.
A BSP leader said that Mayawati may be preparing to pull back her outside support to the UPA government at the centre.
BSP leaders said that while the Akhilesh Yadav government is ‘getting unpopular by every passing day’, the anti-incumbency factor which the BSP would like to see against the SP might not have set in as yet.
‘Behenji [Mayawati] is very clear on one issue. She is against the hike in fuel prices, LPG subsidy being slashed and FDI in retail, but she is not in a hurry to precipitate a snap poll,’ a BSP leader said. The rally is also aimed at feeling the pulse of the Dalit constituency, which deserted her in the state assembly polls, and to show her rivals that she is not a spent force.
‘Every BSP legislator has been asked to bring in as many workers and people as they can. Makeshift hospitals have been made, activists are manning special welcome booths and helplines to guide rallyists who have begun trooping into the state capital,’ a BSP leader said. More than 8,000 party workers have already arrived from Maharashtra and party cadres from other states are trickling in.
Mayawati is also likely to take on the Akhilesh Yadav government, especially after the SP govt revoked the public holiday on Kanshi Ram’s death anniversary.
The Maha Dalit rally on BSP founder Kanshi Ram’s death anniversary has been called to ‘ponder, deliberate and announce’ the BSP’s stand on issues like allowing the FDI in multi-brand retail and the diesel price hike.
Sources in the BSP said that the former chief minister is likely to come down heavily on the Congress-led alliance on a slew of economic reforms the Manmohan Singh govt recently unveiled.
A BSP leader said that Mayawati may be preparing to pull back her outside support to the UPA government at the centre.
BSP leaders said that while the Akhilesh Yadav government is ‘getting unpopular by every passing day’, the anti-incumbency factor which the BSP would like to see against the SP might not have set in as yet.
‘Behenji [Mayawati] is very clear on one issue. She is against the hike in fuel prices, LPG subsidy being slashed and FDI in retail, but she is not in a hurry to precipitate a snap poll,’ a BSP leader said. The rally is also aimed at feeling the pulse of the Dalit constituency, which deserted her in the state assembly polls, and to show her rivals that she is not a spent force.
‘Every BSP legislator has been asked to bring in as many workers and people as they can. Makeshift hospitals have been made, activists are manning special welcome booths and helplines to guide rallyists who have begun trooping into the state capital,’ a BSP leader said. More than 8,000 party workers have already arrived from Maharashtra and party cadres from other states are trickling in.
Mayawati is also likely to take on the Akhilesh Yadav government, especially after the SP govt revoked the public holiday on Kanshi Ram’s death anniversary.