Jaipur: Charging the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre with "adopting various tactics to harass her", Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on September 14 said she would prefer to go to jail rather than compromise with her party's principles.

Launching BSP's poll campaign for the year-end Assembly elections at a rally in Jaipur, Mayawati alleged that BJP forced her to resign after failing to colour her into its own ideological paint and to shatter her self-respect.

"Now the BJP-headed NDA government is adopting different 'hathkandas' (tactics) to harass me. But I am not afraid. I am ready to go to jail instead of compromising my party's principles," she said.

Mayawati charged that a certain group in BJP got Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav into power in Uttar Pradesh where every good thing done by her government was being reversed.

Uttar Pradesh is now in the grip of a "goonda raj" or a "jungle raj" as Yadav had started "showing his true colours" by withdrawing cases against criminals like Raja Bhaiyya and there was an atmosphere of terror in the state, she charged.

All development works and the steps taken to give reservations to down-trodden people have been stopped during the Samajwadi Party's rule, she said.

PTI