Lucknow, July 16 - Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Thursday targeted Congress president Sonia Gandhi for her 'silence' after state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi's 'highly condemnable remarks' against her and also accused the Congress party of engineering an attack on Joshi's residence here.

Terming Joshi's earlier remarks as 'objectionable, reprehensible and highly condemnable', she said: 'The BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) as a whole condemns Joshi in the strongest of words.

'The manner in which Sonia Gandhi has failed to chastise her (Joshi) and has chosen to remain silent arouses suspicion that whatever this woman (Joshi) did was on the direction of the Congress high command only,' Mayawati told a press conference.

'As far as I am concerned Rita Bahuguna Joshi's act was unpardonable.'

Joshi was arrested near Ghaziabad in the wee hours of Thursday for her defamatory remarks against Mayawati, and later remanded to 14 days judicial custody. Around the same time, her residence here was attacked by a mob and set on fire.

'I have a feeling that the attack has been stage-managed by the Congress party itself with the intent to divert the main issue of Joshi's highly condemnable remarks against me,' Mayawati said.

Giving a clean chit to her party workers, she added: 'My partymen are well disciplined and there is no question of their involvement in any such act, especially since I had personally told them to hold back their anger against Joshi's remarks.