BSP’s ‘absolute’ necessity: Upper caste

Bundela was one of the MLAs who withdrew support to her government but retracted before Governor.

Mayawati steered clear of the BSP’s pet anti-Manuvadi issues in an apparent bid to appease the rebellious Thakur lobby which initiated the crisis: ‘‘If every segment of the bahujan samaj joins the BSP, we can get a majority. But to get an absolute majority, we have to also get the upper castes to join us.”

Training her guns on SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati blasted him for calling the Babasaheb Ambedkar park a den of vice: ‘‘If it hadn’t been for Babasaheb, Mulayam Singh and his son would still be grazing cows in Etawah.’’

Her footsoldiers listened in rapt attention while she sat on the dias, lecturing them on politics and chiding them for not abiding by her instructions during the dhikkar rally: ‘‘The stampede overshadowed the success of the rally of 20 lakh Dalits.’’

Denying that she has been coercing political rivals to submission, an agitated Mayawati told mediapersons at a post-conference press meet that the arrests were not politically motivated: ‘‘They were arrested on the basis of Bundela’s FIR and not on my orders.’’

Ruling out the need to call a special session of Assembly, she said: ‘‘Our government is not in minority. They (SP) have not been able to give the names of 204 MLAs.”