Don't fall into film stars' trap: Mayawati in AP

Bahujan Samaj Party  leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Sunday warned the people of Andhra Pradesh not to fall into the traps of film stars harbouring political ambitions in the name of social service.

Addressing a public meeting on the sprawling Nizam College grounds in Hyderabad, Mayawati said people should not fall into the traps of film stars.

"Our party will have no place for film stars. Their job is to sing and dance and not to do social service," she said, without taking the name of a leading actor, who harbours political ambitions.

She also refuted reports that her party was wooing the film stars (a reference to Chiranjeevi and his brother and actor Pawan Kalyan). 

Lashing out at the Congress and BJP and their allies for ignoring the weaker sections, particularly the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and religious minorities during their rule at the Centre and in the states, Mayawati also flayed  regional parties like Telugu Desam Party and sub-regional parties like Telangana Rashtra Samithi for ignoring the aspirations of the people.

She said that she was impressed by the huge gathering and their enthusiastic response. She said the weaker sections and the poorer sections of the upper castes have to come together to usher in socio-economic progress and welfare of all sections of people.

She made it clear that the BSP was not against any caste or religion and its philosophy, principles and policies were intended to ensure social and economic justice to all weaker sections irrespective of caste or creed.

She reiterated her promise to provide reservation to Dalit Christians, Muslims and the poorer sections of Hindus. She also said that BSP would extend the reservations for SCs/STs and OBCs to the private sector as well, if the party succeeded in capturing power at the Centre.

In her hour-long speech, Mayawati dwelt at length on the BSP experiment in Uttar Pradesh. She said that her party had launched schemes for socio-economic advancement of not only the SCs, STs and OBCs, but also minorities and poorer sections among the upper castes.