Make me PM and you’ll get Bundelkhand, promises Maya

But Bundelkhand is still BSP’s perfect state. Out of the 21 Assembly seats, spread across seven districts of the region, 14 went to the party in the last Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls last year. The region has a 25.14 per cent SC population — higher than the national and state average — of which a substantial chunk is made up of Ahirwars, Bundelkhand’s equivalent of Jatav, Mayawati’s own caste. Even in the districts falling in MP, the percentage of SCs is higher than the national average.

Mayawati also used her rally to project herself as the future Prime Minister. While keeping up the ‘Sarva Samaj’ rhetoric , she decided to target the Congress as the main enemy of the Dalits.

She again claimed that there was a plot to assassinate her and that the Centre had denied her SPG protection as part of a political conspiracy. She claimed that the Congress was misusing the official machinery to reopen cases against her. Stating that the Congress had always been an anti-Dalit party, she asked her followers not to forgive the party if the “plot” succeeded. Mayawati even ridiculed Rahul Gandhi for reportedly spending nights at the houses of UP Dalits, calling the whole exercise a “natak”.

Sops Galore

• Foundation laid for Bhimrao Ambedkar Medical College at Banda and Kanshi Ram Paramedical Training College at Jhansi

• Rs 118 crore for agricultural development and a Rs 10-crore insurance scheme for farmers

• Five polytechnics, nine ITIs and an agriculture university at a cost of Rs 50 crore, Rs 20 crore and Rs 100 crore, respectively

• Hand pumps to be installed all over Bundelkhand by February-end

• Pension schemes for widows, the aged and the physically challenged at a cost of Rs 20 crore

• A marriage assistance scheme of Rs 20,000 for SC/ST girls’ parents and that of Rs 10,000 for non-SC/STs

• One person from each BPL family in the region would to get professional training