Mayawati asks partymen to prepare for the polls

LUCKNOW - With elections due in Uttar Pradesh in 2012, Chief Minister Mayawati asked her party rank and file to get into gear for the polls.

Convening a meeting of her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislators at her official residence here Wednesday, Mayawati said: Just about 18 months from now, UP will go to poll. Therefore it is now time that all of you get down to brass tacks and start fanning out in your respective constituencies to apprise the electorate of all the good work that this government has done over the past three and a half years.

Urging the legislators to go door to door, she said: It is important for people to be told how concerned we are about their wellbeing for which we have not only introduced a number of welfare schemes, but also carried out a large number of development and anti-poverty schemes for the larger good of the state.

Lamenting over the alleged non-cooperation by the centre, she added, What the electorate needs to also know is that whatever we have achieved was without the cooperation of the central government, which has been repeatedly denying us our due.

She said: After all, UP is the most populous state in the country, therefore its financial requirements have to be higher than all other states. But the central government has never cared to understand this and has arbitrarily turned down our demand for higher financial assistance or special economic packages for the backward regions.

The chief minister also stressed upon the need to apprise the common masses of her governments successful tirade against crime”.