LUCKNOW: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Wednesday reiterated that her party would go it alone in the assembly elections to the four states scheduled for the end of this year and also in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The announcement from the BSP chief comes a day ahead of the crucial meeting of INDIA in Mumbai. The two-day conclave of the opposition bloc begins on Thursday. (August 31).
Calling the parties in both the NDA and opposition bloc mostly “anti-poor, casteist, communal and pro-rich,” Mayawati, in a series of X posts, said the BSP had been continuously fighting against the policies of the constituents of both these fronts.
“So the question of contesting elections in alliance with either of the two blocs does not arise,” she said adding that the BSP would contest the 2024 national polls and the assembly elections on its own.
The BSP chief exhorted the media to refrain from spreading fake news.
“Despite manipulations and manoeuvring of the adversaries, the BSP, like 2007, will contest the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the assembly polls on its own by uniting millions of neglected and forsaken people on the basis of mutual brotherhood,” she posted.
The BSP chief further said that political parties were eager for an alliance with the BSP. “If the BSP does not opt for it, the opposition alleges collusion with the BJP.... If you meet the opposition leaders, then you are secular. If you do not meet them, then you are with the BJP. It is grossly unfair...”
As per the sources, National Conference leader and former J&K CM Dr Farooq Abdullah had also called up Mayawati in a bid to convince her to join INDIA.
Polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, and Telangana, which account for roughly 15% of India’s population, are expected to be a litmus test for both the ruling alliance and the opposition ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Mayawati has helmed Uttar Pradesh four times as CM. In 2007, she had bounced back to power with full majority to have her fourth term as CM. However, in the 2012 Assembly polls, she lost it to the Samajwadi Party and since then, there has been a marked decline in her party’s support base.
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The clout of BSP has dwindled election-by-elections from 2012 to 2022 so much so that it could win just one seat in the 403-member UP assembly in the 2022 Assembly elections. In 2017 the number had come down to 19 from 80.
Having realised the erosion in clout, Mayawati aligned with the arch-rival SP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and ended up improving its tally from zero in 2014 to 10 seats in 2019. However, she ended the alliance with Akhilesh soon after 2019 LS polls accusing the SP of failing to get its votes converted in favour of the BSP.
