There is a virtual dictatorship of Mayawati and therefore we demand that this government be dismissed.'

BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told IANS: 'We don't justify what Rita Bahuguna Joshi had said and whatever was done by the BSP workers after that. It's a political move to woo Dalit votes.

'Both the parties -- one at the centre and the other in the state -- are trying to divert attention from real issues like the drought-like situation in Uttar Pradesh and price rise.'

BSP workers ransacked and set fire to Joshi's home late Wednesday night. Around the time her house was under attack, Joshi was arrested in Ghaziabad en route to New Delhi. She was charged under the Scheduled caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Mayawati.