"Poverty cannot be eradicated by the citing case of Kalawati and dramatising her poverty," she told the party's national convention in Lucknow.

The BSP chief who spoke at length criticising the Congress and its leaders was specially critical of Rahul Gandhi.

Taking a dig at Union Railway Minister, Mayawati said that Lalu Prasad Yadav is mentally unstable.

"The propaganda of the Congress yuvraj is far from truth and his claims that nuclear energy would solve the problem of electricity shortage were baseless," Mayawati said justifying her opposition to the nuclear deal which she said was against the national interest.

Referring to Rahul Gandhi's visits to Dalit households specially in his Amethi constituency, she said poverty cannot be resolved by sleeping in Dalit houses and having dinners.

While eulogising the contribution of Bhimrao Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram for the uplift of Dalits, she said, "it was wrong to project Congress leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi as well as Rahul Gandhi at par with them".

"The Congress leaders were against Dalits which forced both Amebdkar and Kanshi Ram to float new parties," she claimed.

"There is a need to work on the economic policy to eradicate poverty", she said adding that the parties which take favour from industrial houses have to form policies to help them which was primarily responsible for continued poverty even after 60 years of Independence.