Maya raises Dalit card after EC frisks her twice in K'taka

A "flying squad" of Election Commission subjected Mayawati to checking for a second time in quick succession, following which an angry BSP supremo hit at out the poll watchdog, playing the Dalit card.

As soon as Mayawati, who is in Gulbarga for campaigning for the May 5 Karnataka assembly poll, landed by helicopter at a helipad on the outskirts of the taluk headquarters town of Jewargi in this district, the flying squad carried out an inspection in the chopper.

They found Rs one lakh in cash from her bag, which was not seized after she explained that it belonged to her supporters who accompanied her in the helicopter and that each person is "entitled" to carry Rs 50,000.

Thereafter, as she was climbing the dais put up for her party's public meeting in Jewargi, the flying squad again searched Mayawati and her car, an action that infuriated the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister.

She gave a piece of her mind in her campaign speech, wondering the need to search her again.

"Have you checked Sonia Gandhi (Congress President) and Sushma Swaraj (BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha) when they came for campaigning? You are searching me because I am a Dalit woman", she said.

Gulbarga Deputy Commissioner K J Jagadish told PTI that the flying squad recorded the search and he would send a report to the Election Commission.