BSP asks partymen to brace for early Lok Sabha polls

Lucknow: Predicting Lok Sabha elections by year end, the BSP on Monday asked its MPs to start all out preparations for the electoral battle.

At the meeting of office bearers and elected representatives here presided by party president Mayawati, MPs were asked to start preparations and told that since the coming budget session of Parliament could be the last session of the UPA government, they should strongly raise issues of public welfare, a BSP statement said. The meeting discussed in detail the law and order situation of the state and "as to how FIRs were not being filed concerning cases of atrocities on the sarv samaj, specially those of BSP workers because of political vendetta", it said. The party alleged that the officials were also facing problems because of the "goondas and mafias" of Samajwadi Party and as they cannot help, assistance of courts would be sought for ensuring justice. The party decided to celebrate the birthday of party supremo Mayawati on January 15 as "jan kalyankari diwas" (public welfare day) in an "impressive manner by helping the deprived and the needy". The meeting also decided to hold "BSP mahadhiveshan" in Bengaluru on February 10 and Maharashtra state convention on February 17 in Nagpur. The BSP president had on January 3 and 4 held a meeting with leaders from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka , Andhra Pradesh , Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry . Regretting Samajwadi Party`s "discriminatory" attitude towards OBCs barring Yadavs, the party said that all castes should be given facilities so as to bring them into the mainstream. PTI