**The Chief Minister of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati has warned of violence if statues of her and her mentors are demolished.**Mayawati said opposition parties would be held “responsible” for attempts at destroying the statues.
Last week, India’s Supreme Court ordered her government to stop building the statues.
Ms Mayawati, a low-caste Dalit - formerly “untouchable” - is an icon for India’s 160 million low-caste Hindus.
She is accused of self-glorification by her critics. But she accuses her opponents of conspiring against her.
Ms Mayawati said the Congress party was “anti Dalits” and that the party had spent a lot of money building memorials in the name of its Nehru-Gandhi leaders.
She accused the Congress and the main opposition Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh of indulging in “malicious and mischievous propaganda.”
Uttar Pradesh is one of India’s most deprived states, with a high crime rate and poor health services.
Ms Mayawati’s spending on statues and memorials has been described as “shameful” by India’s Home Minister P Chidambaram.
In May she unveiled 15 new memorials, including two of herself.
Statues of political leaders are generally put up posthumously, but Ms Mayawati says that belief is outdated.