Badaun: BSP chief Mayawati on Saturday said her party wanted both Ali and Bajrang Bali, particularly Bajrang Bali as he is 'linked with my own Dalit caste'.

Addressing a rally in Badaun, Mayawati played on chief minister Yogi Adityanath's Ali-Bajrang Bali comment on Tuesday. Adityanath had said if Ali is with the BSP-SP-RLD alliance, then Bajrang Bali is with the BJP.

'In this connection, I want to tell him (Adityanath) that both Ali and Bajrang Bali are ours.... So we want both Ali as well as Bajrang Bali,' she said.

Lord Hanuman is often called Bajrang Bali. Both Mayawati and Adityanath have been served notices by the Election Commission over their remarks during election campaigns.

'We particularly want Bajrang Bali because he is linked to my own Dalit caste,' Mayawati said, referring to Adityanath's comments last year when he had described Hanuman as a forest dweller and a Dalit. 'I am very thankful to Yogiji that he has given us an important information about our ancestors. So, it is a very happy moment to note that we have both Ali and Bajrang Bali, and their coming together will give us very good results in these elections,' she said. 'In the Lok Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh, Yogi's party (BJP) will neither get the votes of Ali nor Bajrang Bali.'

Mayawati was addressing a rally of the BSP-SP-RLD alliance for Samajwadi Party nominee Dharmendra Yadav in the Badaun Lok Sabha seat, where Samajwadi chief Akhilesh Yadav was also present.

'In these elections, the NaMo NaMo people are going out of power and the Jai Bhim ones are coming, which is also the need of the country.' NaMo is an acronym for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Jai Bhim is the slogan used by followers of Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar.