New Delhi: Hours after walking out of Rajya Sabha in anger, BSP supremo Mayawati handed over her three-page resignation to the chairman of the Upper House, Hamid Ansari. He is yet to decide on her resignation.

“I simply wanted the Rajya Sabha Chair to pay attention to atrocities against the less fortunate sections of the society, especially Dalits. And as a representative, when I’m not being allowed to speak for them, I have no choice but to resign,” Ms Mayawati said, referring to the deputy chairman, P.J. Kurien, asking her to cut short her speech about the rise in Dalit atrocities under the BJP rule.

Ms Mayawati’s current term ends next year in April. But with just 19 MLAs in Uttar Pradesh, chances of her being renominated to the Upper House are bleak.

The BSP party has no member in the Lok Sabha. An agency report, quoting Lalu Prasad Yadav, said the RJD chief has extended support to Ms Mayawati.

“We support Mayawati Ji and if she wants we will again send her to Rajya Sabha,” he told the agency.

In her resignation, Ms Mayawati repeated most of what she had said in the Upper House earlier, including the Saharanpur incidents in May.

Maya should apologise to Chair: Centre
Mr Kurien had asked her to cut short her speech as she had been given only three minutes to speak, but had already spoken for about seven.

“I have no moral right to be in the House if I am not allowed to put across my views on atrocities being committed against Dalits. I am going to resign from the House,” she said.

“She should apologise. She has threatened the Chair,” he said. “Neither did she talk about her community or Dalits. She only made a pure political speech. The way UP rejected her party, that rejection is showing one should not challenge the Chair. Whatever she said challenging the Chair should be expunged,” Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said