Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Thursday lashed out at those who criticised her party after a video of her birthday celebrations in Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha went viral the day before, ANI reported. In the video, BSP workers are seen trying to snatch pieces of a cake.

Mayawati claimed that the rise in her party’s popularity and its alliance with the Samajwadi Party have created unrest among “anti-Dalit and casteist” leaders. “Instead of fighting us fair and square they are making absurd remarks against us and conspiring with some casteist and anti-Dalit TV channels,” the BSP chief said at a press conference.

Mayawati said her nephew Akash Anand would join the Bahujan Samaj Party. “If some casteist and anti-Dalit section of media has a problem with that then let it be,” she added. “Our party does not care.”

Mayawati accused “anti-Dalit and casteist” leaders of using sections of the media for cheap politics, and said the Bahujan Samaj Party would give them a fitting reply. “We are not timid, that we shall listen to this and keep quiet,” she said.