Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati was Thursday getting ready to broaden her support base with a massive rally of Brahmins in this Uttar Pradesh capital.

Nearly 100,000 Brahmins have converged here for the Dalit party's first gathering of upper castes. And in an effort to silence her critics who allege that the rally would include a large number of Dalits to show high attendance, Mayawati has challenged sceptics to randomly crosscheck names and castes of the participants.

"You can go and ask anyone to tell his name and you can find out the caste yourself," Mayawati told IANS before the rally.

"This is not politics of vote. My objective in holding this rally of Brahmins is to bring them closer to the Dalits and to break age-old social divides that have been detrimental to society." 

BSP general secretary Satish Misra, who has been key in organising the rally, added: "You will find Brahmins from different economic strata here from each of the 73 districts of Uttar Pradesh."

"I have held at least 60 Brahmin meetings in 21 districts since February when Mayawati actually embarked upon her new social engineering plan," Misra told IANS.

With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress slipping and the ruling Samajwadi Party focussing on Yadavs, Thakurs and Muslims, it is the perfect time for the BSP to rope in Brahmins in its fold, say BSP leaders.