Patna, (Bihar Times): Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati landed up directly in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan to open a new front both against the state satraps like Ram Vilas Paswan and Nitish Kumar and the Congress Party, which leads the UPA in the Centre.

pix: Manish Sinha

She tried to use the helipad as the launching pad for a new political innings. She not only approached Bihar’s political turf in an unusual way but also made a strange remark: “If she is killed today her partymen would take revenge from the Congress.” She took pot shots at the party for its failure to do anything in Mumbai where North Indians are being targeted.

pix: Manish Sinha

The UP chief minister concentrated her speech on the performance of her government and what she was doing for the Dalits, tribals, Muslims, backwards and poor people of the upper castes. She said that her government had ensured 22.5 per cent reservation for the SCs and STs and 27 for the Backward Castes in the private sector jobs. She also said that her government is providing reservation to the backward caste Muslims and economically poor upper castes.

She ended her speech with the hope that her party would get maximum number of seats from Bihar in the next parliamentary election.

Interestingly, her rally rattled Union fertilizer minister and Lok Janshakti Party leader, Ram Vilas Paswan, who on Wednesday asked her to remain confined to her home turf, Uttar Pradesh, rather than drift towards Bihar. “There is no place for her in Bihar,” he said.

However, railway minister Lalu Yadav welcomed her rally by saying that everyone has the right to expand his or her political base. But Mayawati’s bid to cut into the backward caste votes––besides that of Dalits––did not go down well with the Janata Dal (United) and its partner, the BJP, which is trying to improve its tally from six in the last Lok Sabha
election.