The Hindu

Bangalore, Jan 10: The Bahujan Samaj Party State unit on Wednesday claimed that Pejawar Math pontiff Vishvesha Thirtha Swamiji has sought an appointment with party supremo Mayawati.

Addressing presspersons, BSP State unit president Marasandra Muniyappa said the Pejawar seer was keen on meeting Ms. Mayawati. However, he said the party was not aware of the exact reasons behind such a meeting sought by him.

Mr. Muniyappa only said that the success of Ms. Mayawati’s social engineering experiment in Uttar Pradesh in which the party joined hands with the upper castes as well as the oppressed communities had resulted in people from various communities, including the upper castes, moving towards the BSP in Karnataka.

He said the party State unit was in an upbeat mood ever since Ms. Mayawati addressed a convention in Bangalore recently. More than 1,000 persons were joining the party every day from various communities ever since Ms. Mayawati’s visit, he claimed. During her Karnataka visit, Ms. Mayawati had assured poor people from upper castes of providing 10 per cent reservation in private sector if her party came to power at the Centre.

Mr. Muniyappa said the party would contest all the 224 Assembly seats in the State on its own without entering into any alliance with other political parties.

In a statement, the party said the former Vice-Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences R. Chandrashekhar would join its fold.

Meanwhile, the BSP State unit has decided to celebrate Ms. Mayawati’s birthday on January 15 in a novel way by providing financial aid of Rs. 5,000 each to five destitute women and poor widows from every Assembly constituency in the State.

Mr. Muniyappa said about 1,300 persons would receive the financial aid at a programme to be held on that day at the Ambedkar Bhavan in Bangalore.

He said the funds for such an aid would be raised from the party members instead of collecting donations from industrialists.