Mayavati campaigns in Delhi on Sunday. Picture by Ramakant Kushwaha

New Delhi, Nov. 23: Mayavati today waded deep into enemy territory, projected herself as the next Prime Minister and promised Delhi her model of social engineering.

The Bahujan Samaj Party chief chose to speak at a reserved seat in east Delhi’s Trilokpuri around 3pm, half an hour before Sonia Gandhi addressed a similar constituency in another part of the city.

Knowing well that a third of the electorate in Trilokpuri are scheduled castes, Mayavati chose to focus on the 10 per cent Brahmin vote.

Her key aide Satish Chandra Mishra set the tone by drawing attention to his Brahmin roots, saying the BSP was not against upper castes and pointed to his rise within the party as an example.

Mayavati promised reservation for the economically backward irrespective of caste if she took over the reins at the Centre.

“We are in favour of giving reservation to the poor among upper castes but it has to be done by the Centre. When we have a government at the Centre like we have in Uttar Pradesh, this reservation will be given, I assure you,” she said.

The 20,000-strong crowd greeted with several rounds of applause slogans such as sarvajan sukhay, sarvajan hitay (happiness for all, welfare for all) that rose from the stage.

Although some among the audience had come from Uttar Pradesh villages on the outskirts of the capital, the BSP’s growing organisational clout in the city was evident in the way a volunteer force managed the crowd.

Methodically, Mayavati explained why people should vote for the BSP, not for the “BJP, the Congress and their allies” — there was no mention of the Samajwadis.

Since, she said, the BJP and the Congress seek help from “rich capitalists”, they will always be under pressure to run the government for such classes, she said. “There is no gap between our words and deeds. We live up to our promises,” she said.

The speeches were punctuated with songs like “Behena ko PM banana hoga (our sister has to be made Prime Minister)” set to an old Hindi hit.

“From the number of people here, I think you are going to bring your party to power in the state,” Mayavati said.