Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Saturday reiterated her demand for Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, for her mentor and BSP founder Kanshi Ram even as she sought a ban on pre-poll surveys ahead of UP assembly election to be held early next year.

She said she will write to the Election Commission demanding surveys by media organisations and other agencies be banned six months before any election so that the polls in the particular state are not influenced by it.

Addressing BSP cadres in Lucknow on the occasion of Kanshi Ram’s 15th death anniversary at a memorial built in his memory, Mayawati said “I bow my head to Kanshi Ram ji on this occasion.”

She cited the case of pre-poll surveys that projected losses for Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in West Bengal assembly election. “Ahead of polls, Mamata Banerjee was shown trailing but when results came in, she won by an overwhelming majority and hopes of those dreaming to attain power were shattered,” she said.

Accusing some agencies of being in “dhandha” (business) of pre-poll survey, Mayawati said a ban on pre-poll surveys was necessary to stop this. Mayawati has in the recent past too has shown her displeasure at such pre-poll surveys predicting gains for BJP and alleged that it was part of a conspiracy to underplay her party’s impact ahead of the 2022 UP polls.

Claiming that people in UP have made up their mind to unseat the BJP, Mayawati alleged that the ruling party’s governments at the centre and in UP were misusing official machinery for electoral gains.

“I would appeal to people to not waste their vote on BJP,” she said. She also claimed that the BJP could give a communal twist to things ahead of 2022 UP polls. “It is known that BJP ultimately resorts to giving Hindu-Muslim spin and seeks advantage through polarisation,” she said urging the cadres to be wary of such things.

BJP’s former ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and a Dalit organisation Bhim Army led by Chandrashekhar Azad are active ahead of the polls. SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar has claimed that Azad would be part of his Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha, an organisation comprising various smaller caste-based parties.

Without naming any particular smaller party, Mayawati cautioned the cadres against them too. “Various smaller parties or organisations are there wanting to contest elections independently or together. But their main aim is not to win elections but to discreetly help the ruling party,” she alleged.

She also alleged that ahead of the polls, the BJP government had started resorting to caste politics and cited the recent foundation stone laying function of a university in name of a Jat community leader and unveiling of a statue of a leader of Gurjar community in UP.