BSP to give quota to poor among upper castes: Mayawati

After stressing that her party does not believe in making promises but acting on them, BSP president Mayawati today vowed to waive farmers' loans up to Rs 1 lakh per head and extend quota benefits to the poor among the upper castes.
"The reservation facility to Dalits and backwards will come to an end in case BJP, which is working on RSS agenda, comes to power in UP....With BSP in power, quota facility will continue besides reservation will also be extended to the poor among the upper castes, based on their financial condition," she told a public meeting here.
"When voted to power, BSP government will waive loans up to Rs 1 lakh to poor farmers," she said.

Addressing a press conference on her birthday last month, Mayawati had stated that unlike other parties offering allurements in manifesto which they do not keep, BSP does not believe in having such a pledge document as it wants to work instead of making tall promises.
Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi helped his confidants adjust their black money in 10 months prior to note ban, Mayawati said BJP has realised the extent of anger among people on the issue and that is why no one has been projected as its chief ministerial candidate.
She accused the SP government of indulging in politics of vendetta and said minorities and Dalits were framed and sent to jail.

She promised that these cases will be reviewed and those found innocent will be freed.

Mayawati said that after the Yadav family feud, minorities have become totally disenchanted with SP and feared that the SP-Congress alliance would indirectly help BJP.
"Mulayam Singh humiliated his brother Shivpal due to his love for his son Akhilesh, now Shivpal's supporters will not sit silently...SP is divided into two parts...If minorities do not sit up they will have to face problems," she said.
Cautioning minorities against BJP, Mayawati said Modi government is looking at them with doubt and they are being meted step-motherly treatment in the country.

In an oblique reference to the BJP's recent attempts to
aggressively woo a section of Dalits and OBCs, Mayawati told her supporters to not get hoodwinked by such "antics".
"They are working hard to disown their anti-Dalit and anti-OBC past. Their decision to appoint an OBC (Keshav Prasad Maurya) as the state president in place of a Brahmin (Laxmi Kant Vajpayee) was just a clever ploy you should beware of," the BSP supremo remarked.
"If, by an accident, the BJP happens to come to power in UP then backed by the government at the Centre, the party will work towards fulfilling the RSS agenda of doing away with reservations," she said.

"Reservations for Dalits was a direct result of the endeavours of of Baba Saheb Ambedkar. When V P Singh became the Prime Minister, he posthumously conferred Bharat Ratna on Ambedkar and implemented Mandal Commission whereby the reservation facility was extended to Backward Classes.
"Our Dalit and OBC friends must not forget that it was the BJP which pulled down Singh's government and it was BJP supporters who held violent agitations demanding withdrawal of Mandal," the BSP supremo said.
Mayawati also questioned the Prime Minister's OBC status and alleged that he belongs to an upper caste,
"he belongs to an upper caste called Ghanchi, which we call Teli (oilpresser) in our part of the country. When Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he had deliberately got his caste group included in OBC list to place a hurdle in the way of backward classes realising their full potential," she claimed.