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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050516/asp/...ory_4743813.asp

Mayavati hisses at ‘snake’ Cong
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, May 15: After offering support to the UPA government for almost a year, <b>Mayavati has suddenly realised that the Congress is a “snake”.</b>

“'The Congress-led coalition is saapnath (snake) while the NDA is nagnath (king cobra),” the Bahujan Samaj Party chief, whom the CBI is investigating in an assets case, declared today.

<b>She added that both the UPA and the NDA are manuwadi coalitions</b>. “'The only difference is that if a cobra bites, a person dies instantly. But if you are bitten by (an ordinary) snake you die a slow death,” Mayavati explained.

She said Dalits have been angered by the “double standards” <b>adopted by the CBI in her case </b>and that BSP leaders had sought her permission to launch a nationwide agitation. BSP sources said they have information that the <b>Congress is unlikely to help Mayavati out in the corruption cases against her </b>as it wants to weaken her, especially in Uttar Pradesh.

<b>The Congress apparently feels that while Mulayam Singh Yadav has wooed away its Muslim voters, Mayavati has usurped its Dalit vote base and is now trying in a big way to lure the Brahmins.</b>

An “unpredictable” Mayavati also created problems for herself by refusing to align with the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections and again contesting against the party in Maharashtra.

Unnerved by the CBI move, Mayavati is trying to whip up an anti-Congress wave across the country and <b>paint it as an upper caste party, </b>sources said. BSP leaders have been citing <b>how the “backward caste” Laloo Prasad Yadav is also under the CBI scanner.</b>

Laloo Prasad’s party, the RJD, has openly backed Mayavati against the CBI “onslaught”.

After the CBI interrogated her in the assets case early this week, the BSP chief threatened to withdraw support to the <b>UPA government and expose the Congress’s “manuwadi” mindset.</b>

She will write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi asking <b>what they had done in the past one year for the betterment of Dalits.</b> <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo--> If their answer doesn’t satisfy her, she might withdraw support.

Though withdrawal of support by the 18-member BSP will not hurt the government, Mayavati hopes her threat will buy her some relief from the CBI pressure. Asked whether she was serious about her threat, she said: “We did not spare the NDA, how can we spare the Congress?”

The BSP chief convened a meeting of her party’s central executive committee and state presidents here and “reviewed” the performance of the UPA government and “its ability to safeguard the interests of the bahujan samaj”.

After the meeting, <b>held in a five-star hotel</b>, she slammed the government for its failure to look after Dalits and Adivasis.