Date:09/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/09/stories/2008040956690400.htm

New Delhi

‘Mayawati losing Dalit voters’

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Delhi PWD Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan has expressed anguish over some of the comments made by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati about Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

Stating that the love and affection received by Mr. Gandhi from Dalits across the country had unnerved the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo, Mr. Chauhan said her utterances betray her sense of trepidation and fear of losing her control over the Dalit voters.

He said the popularity of Mayawati was on the wane and she had been rattled by the rousing response Mr. Gandhi evoked from the Dalits.

As for Ms. Mayawati’s reported remarks that Mr. Gandhi had only engaged in a “drama” by staying in the hut of a Dalit in U.P. as he had later purified himself on his return to Delhi, Mr. Chauhan said such utterances betray “feudal mentality” of the BSP leader.