'Would have sent Sonia to jail if I was vindictive'

LUCKNOW: Incensed over Congress president Sonia Gandhi���s foray into villages of Rae Bareli, chief minister Mayawati said that had her government been vindictive she would have ensured that Sonia Gandhi was sent to jail. She dubbed Ms Gandhi���s call for development as a ���drama��� and said that the Congress leaders should look beyond Rae Bareli and Amethi if they really believe in the welfare of the masses.

The Mayawati regime had denied permission to Congress president Sonia Gandhi from holding a rally on Tuesday in her Rae Bareli constituency. But a defiant Ms Gandhi drove through villages and mingled with people. She said on Tuesday that nobody can stop her from visiting Rae Bareli, which was the ���karam bhoomi��� of the Gandhi family.

Mayawati retorted by saying Sonia Gandhi was only stopped from holding a rally in Lalganj due to the volatile situation there and not elsewhere within her constituency. ���Had my government been vindictive, we would not have allowed Sonia Gandhi to conduct a road show in Rae Bareli and would have fulfilled her desire to go to jail.���

Mayawati claimed that her government had allowed Sonia Gandhi to hold a rally in Dadri recently despite the Congress trying to ���put roadblocks��� in the state government backed projects of Ganga Expressway and Yamuna Expressway.

She alleged that though Ms Gandhi called Rae Bareli and Amethi as the home of the Gandhis, the Congress had over its long tenure at the Centre and the state done little for the development of the people there. She said that the BSP would soon hold a rally in Rae Bareli to expose the Congress��� ���double speak���.

The Congress, however, lashed out at Mayawati warning her that she will find it difficult to carry on with her political tours in different parts of India if she did not ���rein in her dictatorial tendencies.��� The party said Ms Mayawati practised politics of ���fear, revenge and corruption,��� and also raised the issue of the UP government reportedly stopping ex-CBI director Vijay Shankar from accessing his pensionary benefits. ���If this is not political animosity, what is it?��� Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said.