BSP supremo and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati today charged the Congress with obstructing the development of the state and insulting its people by dubbing them as ‘beggars’. The Congress ruled the state for about 40 years but it still had the audacity to put the blame on others for the lack of development in UP, she said while addressing an election meeting here during last leg of campaign for the seven-phase assembly polls ending March 3 . Ms Mayawati said her government had assumed charge when the coffers of the state were empty and the Centre was apathetic towards the problems of UP. ‘ We demanded a development package of Rs 80,000 crore from the Centre but there was no response from it,’ she further alleged. The leaders of the same Congress were adding insult to the injury by calling people of the state as ‘beggars’, she pointed out. ‘It is clear that the attitude of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre towards the state was step motherly,’ she added.
——Agencies