Pointing out that while her party only won 20 Lok Sabha seats in 2009, its candidates stood second in 47 seats, the Dalit leader said the time has come to focus on these seats also, so that the party bags the maximum number of seats in the state.
Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha constituencies, and all parties are eyeing the state to gain power at the centre in the crucial Lok Sabha polls scheduled for April-May this year.
Alleging that the central parties have unleashed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against her, Mayawati said she was a victim of a political witch hunt that cornered her between 2003-2006.
"I was pushed into trouble between those years, but I never lost hope and am thankful to all those who stood by me then," she said, while trying to strike an emotional chord with the people who braved intense cold to attend the rally.
Urging party workers and supporters to ensure that the BSP returns to power with absolute majority in Uttar Pradesh in the state assembly polls of 2017, Mayawati asked them to ensure that the state sends the maximum number of BSP members to the Lok Sabha.
She took a dig at other parties, saying that her rally was not of people "sitting on chairs, but of people who sit on durries (mats)".
