LUCKNOW (TIP): With an eye on upper caste vote bank, BSP chief Mayawati announced names of 36 candidates for Lok Sabha polls, 18 of whom are Brahmins. Seeking to exploit the upper caste card to the hilt, she alleged atrocities were being committed on such people during the Samajwadi Party rule in Uttar Pradesh. “Just as Dalits are facing onslaughts, atrocities are being committed on Brahmins too under the Samajwadi Party government,” Mayawati told reporters on the sidelines of Brahmin Bhaichara Samiti office bearers’ meeting here.

Citing the instance of humiliation to a Brahmin family in Etawah, she said most of those in the echelons of power in the SP government came from that district and it was a wellknown fact that people belonging to ‘sarv samaj’ (the entire society) are harassed there. “But Brahmins bear the maximum brunt of atrocities in Etawah…when the incident (of humiliation) took place, BSP raised the matter in the Assembly.

Besides, its local unit tried to take up the issue and help them get justice,” she said. Mayawati regretted that during the last Assembly polls, the upper castes and Brahmins got influenced by non- BSP parties and did not vote for her party, “for which they are now repenting“. “For ensuring that they do not get further misled by the false propaganda of those parties, a detailed programme has been worked out by BSP to apprise them of various works done by my government in their interest. Besides, they would be apprised of atrocities on Brahmins under the SP rule,” she said. On why upper castes had got disenchanted with BSP in the last Assembly polls, she said, “Though our vote percentage rose, we lost seats due to our opponents’ (Congress and BJP) conspiracy, but we have learnt a lesson and would not allow them to succeed this time,” she said.