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Mayawati promises quota for poor among forward communities

— Photo : M. Vedhan

MOBILISING THE SOUTH: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati at a BSP rally in Chennai on Monday.

CHENNAI: On the Tamil Nadu leg of her south India tour, Bahujan Samaj Party leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Monday promised to provide reservation for the economically weaker sections among the forward communities.

Addressing a ‘brotherhood rally’ organised by the Tamil Nadu unit of the party, she said the cadre must take along people belonging to the forward communities to achieve the goal of forming a BSP government in Tamil Nadu.

Ms. Mayawati pointed out that her party had already written to the Central government to amend the Constitution to provide for reservation for the poor among the forward communities. It had also demanded reservation for the backward classes, the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes in the private sector.

Listing the welfare schemes initiated by her in Uttar Pradesh after she was elected Chief Minister for a fourth term, Ms. Mayawati said these included distribution of three acres of government land to the poor and unemployed.

“We have set up several welfare departments for the social and economic uplift of the weaker sections,” she said.

The BSP government had filled the backlog vacancies in various departments and provided reservation to Muslims, she added.

Stating that her government is working towards creating an inclusive society, she said if the electorate in Tamil Nadu wanted to create a similar environment, it should vote for the BSP.

She cautioned partymen to be wary of both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party saying that these parties would resort to any tactic to prevent the BSP from coming to power.

On Sunday, she addressed a rally in Mysore in Karnataka and she is scheduled to speak at a public meeting in Kottayam in Kerala on Tuesday.

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