Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Thursday raked up the issue of country's sluggish economy saying that people's purchasing power has come down because of that.
She also urged the Centre to take substantial steps to curb poverty and unemployment.
"India's economic condition has become a widely discussed topic. Is this because of the Demonetisation or Goods and Tax Services (GST)? It would be good if the Centre focuses first on abolishing poverty and unemployment," she said in a press statement.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister also talked about vacancies in government offices and the deteriorating conditions of Dalits and other backward classes saying "I urge the Centre and the state government to fill up the vacant quota seats of the government run-institutions by giving jobs to Dalits, Tribals, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes."
Mayawati in a press statement also talked about the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh urged the party workers to make all efforts so that every candidate contesting the election end up being the winner.
"In Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha election, the party generally chooses old and capable leaders. I have made an appeal to all the supporters to make efforts so that all the contenders end up being the winner," she said.
It should be noted that BSP is going solo in the all the 13 Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. The party has declared 12 candidates whereas the candidate for Gangoh seat will be declared later.
The candidates declared by the party so far are: Naushad Ali (Hamirpur seat), Zubair Masood Khan (Rampur Sadar), Abhay Kumar (Iglas), Ramesh Chandra (Balha), Sunil Kumar Chittaurh (Tundla), Arun Dwivedi (Lucknow Cantt), Devi Prasad Tiwari (Govind Nagar), Rajnarain (Mkpur), Ranjit Singh Patel (Pratapgarh Sadar), Akhilesh Kumar Ambedkar (Jaidpur), Rakesh Pandey (Jalalpur), Abdul Quayum (Ghosi).
Most of these seats went vacant after the sitting MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha in May this year.
( With inputs from ANI )