Mayawati vows to bring reservation for upper backward class

Nov 19: Reservation issue continue to remain in the news and in a fresh bid Mayawati, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday in a rally in Jammu called her party workers to bring upper castes into the party to help them capture power in the state and centre.

She said that her Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) is very much in favour of giving reservations to the upper caste based on their economic health.

She said, “Our party was never against the upper castes. Once I had even asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to make provisions for the reservation of upper castes and religious minorities.”

Ahead of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections this may signal towards a fresh political realignment among political parties.

Giving the long history of BSP stands on this issue, she said, “I had taken up the issue with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as well. However, none of them gave a positive response.”

The rally was attended by thousands of people from Gujjars and upper castes too. Mayawati, who has been able to bring a new political change in Uttar Pradesh, is ready to take the idea of ‘shared responsibilities’ further by people of all castes in a state of caste and hence addressing the issues of poor citing the prominent one – reservation for the economically weaker upper caste.

She said, “Without them our dream of social engineering cannot become a reality.”

She was there with a political motive and hence left out all the issues that would have ignited new controversies as the Kashmir issue and terrorism failed to find a way in her speech.

She reprimanded the Congress government and BJP government for not taking the matter seriously and accused them of running business houses and said that her party is the party of people.

She revealed her plan to contest on all 87 seats in the upcoming 2008 assembly elections in Jammu Kashmir. The party had won only one seat in the 2002 and four in 1996 assembly poll but with this new social vision she is committed to gain more.

Mayawati after registering a massive victory in Uttar Pradesh is on spree to replicate the same formula in other states too.

Earlier the Supreme Court in 1992 had declared separate reservations for economically poor forward class as invalid.