Lucknow: Two women were killed and 28 people wounded on October 9 morning during the rally of Bahujan Samajwadi Party in Lucknow.

Party chief Mayawati was addressing more than 500,000 supporters when the accident occurred. The rally was organized at the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar ground to observe the death anniversary of party founder Kanshi Ram, who died on October 9 in 2006.

Hundreds are still searching for their friends and relatives in and around the rally site. Among those missing are 15 children, said police sources.

Immense confusion occurred as the crowd dispersed after Mayawati’s address.

With BSP having a huge support base among the Dalits, it is mostly the poorest of the poor who attend its rallies.

Ambulances found it difficult to access the area as the people, desperate to leave the rally site, blocked the roads, sources said. Doctors have been rushed to the spot.

The injured have been given first aid and preliminary medical treatment at a clinic set up by a hospital run by a charitable trust and sent to hospitals around the rally sites, reports ndtv.com.

Around 12pm hundreds of people were rushing through the only main gate to gain entry inside Eco Garden, the place where really was being held.

In the melee a stampede like situation occurred and two women died after being crushed. Their bodies were rushed to Lok Bandhu hospital. The injured were being treated.

Earlier, a woman had died at the rally and BSP state chief Ram Achal Rajbhar said she had died due to the heat and humidity.

The political leaders had left the site before the function had ended.

In her speech, Mayawati — whose party is trying to capture power from the ruling Samajwadi Party in next year’s assembly elections — accused the federal Narendra Modi government of spreading hatred and communalism in Uttar Pradesh.

“Dalits are being targeted in various parts of the country in the name of cow protection,” she added.

The BJP government, she said, has proved that it is not the government of the farmers and the poor but only the government of the rich and successful.