Lucknow, May 11: Suspended Bahujan Samaj Party leader Nasimuddin Siddiqui today hit back at his former boss, playing seven audiotapes at a media conference to "prove" party chief Mayawati's "lust for money", and threatened to come up with more damaging revelations if she didn't back off.

Siddiqui, thrown out of the BSP along with his son Afzal, said the tapes were a recording of conversations he had with Mayawati between April 19 and May 9.

He promised to provide evidence in support of another contention he made - that Mayawati was "running a gang that attacks and kills her critics and dissenters" - if she targeted him further.

Mayawati admitted that the voice on the tapes was hers but claimed their conversation, in Hindi, had been "edited" and dubbed Siddiqui a "phone-tapping blackmailer".

Siddiqui, a general secretary who has been with the party since the time of its founder Kanshi Ram, and Afzal were suspended from the BSP's primary membership yesterday on the charge of "taking money" from ticket seekers ahead of the February-March elections in Uttar Pradesh this year.

At the media conference in Lucknow, Siddiqui claimed that Mayawati had demanded Rs 50 crore from him after the Assembly elections that ended in a crushing defeat for the former chief minister's party. The BSP won only 19 of the state's 403 seats.

"One day Mayawati called me and demanded Rs 50 crore. She asked me to explain the reasons behind the defeat of the BSP in the elections. She also asked me why Muslims didn't vote for the BSP. I replied that the Muslim vote was divided because of the alliance of the Samajwadi Party and the Congress," Siddiqui said.

The suspended veteran said Mayawati was "not convinced" and used an abusive word. "I dared to react against her remark and realised that day that I would soon be thrown out of the party," he said, explaining why he had decided to record the conversations he had with her on the phone after that day.

In the first audiotape, Mayawati is purportedly heard saying: "Do the job I have assigned to you as soon as possible."

Siddiqui is heard saying in reply: "I will give you (the money) after selling off all my properties, Behenji."

In the second audio, the voice purported to be that of Mayawati asks Siddiqui to furnish details of membership books that had been distributed among BSP supporters in several west Uttar Pradesh constituencies..

"I will dispose of each and every property I have," Siddiqui says in the tape.

Siddiqui claimed that although he had not taken any money from anybody, Mayawati kept on asking him to deposit the amount with the party.

In the third tape, the voice claimed to be that of Mayawati is again heard asking for the details.

Siddiqui replies: "I am on the job, Behenji. I will do whatever the party orders me."

In the fourth tape, Mayawati is heard purportedly saying: "I don't want to say everything on the phone. My phone tapping is going on. I want the summary of accounts. It is a party of the poor and the downtrodden. I have to give the details to the people. I want every detail from you on those seats where there were Muslim candidates. I had given them tickets on your suggestion."

Siddiqui played one or two irrelevant sentences of the next two tapes before stopping them. In the seventh, Mayawati is purportedly heard asking Siddiqui to meet her at the party office.

"Behenji, you, Mishraji (BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra) and Anand Kumar (Mayawati's brother and newly appointed BSP vice-president) tortured me a lot that day. I don't have courage to come to your place," Siddiqui replies. It's not clear which day he is referring to.

The line then gets disconnected. Mayawati had apparently hung up on him.

"I have 150 audiotapes, including one to prove that Mayawati runs a gang of criminals who target those who are her critics, dissenters and rivals. I will make them public if she targets me further," Siddiqui told the conference.

Addressing a news conference two hours later, Mayawati dared Siddiqui to release the other tapes.

"I had received complaints from BSP members in west Uttar Pradesh that he didn't deposit with the party the membership money collected from there before the Assembly elections," she said. "I was mounting pressure on him to deposit this money with the party."