Nearly ten hours after she put her foot in the mouth, former Uttar Pradesh [Images] chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati [Images] declared late Friday night that she never said that all Muslims were fanatics.

It was only after television news channels started showing loud protests against her utterances made earlier in the day in Lucknow that she realized her own faux pas.

Whether it was slip of the tongue or her habit of putting her foot in the mouth, earlier in the day, Mayawati had not minced words in referring to Muslims as 'fanatics' while stating: "Muslim voters general tilt towards fanatics."

What made matters even worse for her was her added remark: "This is why I told the BSP voters to even vote for Bharatiya Janata Party, since we were not contesting the recently concluded civic polls in the state."

The observations led to loud protests in Meerut where Muslims took to streets and burnt effigies of Mayawati, who had made particular mention of the election there. She had cited Meerut as among the places where Muslims chose to vote for 'fanatics.'

In a much delayed damage control, a visibly jittery Mayawati addressed a hastily convened press conference around 10.15 pm, pleading that she had been misunderstood.  She chose to read out a well-prepared release, which said: "Some TV channels have been projecting that I have referred to Muslims in general as fanatics; but that is not true."

About transferring her party's vote to BJP, she sought to clarify: "All I said was that I asked my party supporters to vote for the strongest candidate against the wife of UP Minister Haji Yaqoob Quraishi, because the latter was trying to vitiate the atmosphere by fuelling fanaticism."

She went on to add, "In Lucknow Mayor's poll, we transferred our BSP vote to the Muslim nominee of the Congress party because the independent  whom we had extended support got sold to Mulayam; and we were determined to ensure defeat of the ruling Samajwadi Party."

Mayawati further sought to point out, "Far from labeling all Muslims as fanatics, let me tell you that I cannot even imagine that about Muslims as I have always considered them as a part of the Bahujan Samaj."