LUCKNOW, April 11 -- Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Saturday invoked the legacy of social reformer Jyotiba Phule to reinforce the party's core social justice pitch while launching a direct attack on the previous Samajwadi Party over the renaming of districts created during her tenure.

In a statement issued on the occasion of Phule Jayanti, the BSP chief paid rich tribute to the 19th-century reformer, describing him as the "grand patriarch of social transformation" and a pioneering force behind women's education and the uplift of the oppressed and backward classes.

Moreover, Mayawati also revived a long-standing grievance against the SP and sought to foreground the symbolic politics of identity that has historically been cen...