The suspense over the continuation of ‘mahaghatbandhan’ unfolded on Tuesday when Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati made it official that her party would contest on all 11 Assembly seats in the coming bypolls in Uttar Pradesh.
The decision of contesting bypolls is not just shocking for SP leaders but also surprised the BSP cadre as the party earlier never fought any bypolls. Interestingly, the decision to part ways with the SP also comes just a day after anniversary of State Guest House incident which also falls on June 2.
Former UP Chief Minister said that if the Samajwadi Party did not learn from the mistakes it made in the Lok Sabha election, both parties would eventually contest independently in the future too. She said that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav needed to set his party in order and weed out those responsible for failing to get their supporters’ vote en bloc during the Lok Sabha election. “It’s not a permanent break-up. If we feel in future that SP chief succeeds in his political work, we’ll again work together. But if he doesn’t succeed, it’ll be good for us to work separately. So we’ve decided to fight the by-election alone,” she said before a news agency in New Delhi on Tuesday morning.
Claiming that the BSP had not benefited from the alliance with the SP in the recently-concluded election, she said that the transfer of votes between the two parties did not take place. She even claimed that the SP could not even manage to maintain its hold on Yadav seats as well as the constituencies on which his family members were contesting. “We can’t ignore political compulsions. In the results of Lok Sabha elections in UP, base vote of Samajwadi Party, the ‘Yadav’ community, didn’t support the party. “... Dimple Yadav, Dharmendra Yadav and Akshay Yadav have lost elections from Kannauj, Badaun and Firozabad, respectively, and it has made us think a lot,” she added.
Stating that she has personal ties with Akhilesh and Dimple, she said that they gave her a lot of respect. “I also forgot all our differences in the interest of the nation and gave them respect. Our relation isn’t only for politics, it’ll continue forever,” she said. The BSP, SP had fought the Lok Sabha election in alliance with the former contesting on 38 seats and the latter on 37 seats in Uttar Pradesh. The BSP won 10 Lok Sabha seats while the SP managed to win just 5 seats. It may be mentioned that 11 Assembly bypolls are due in UP after the respective MLAs won the Lok Sabha polls. While nine BJP MLAs emerged victorious in the LS polls, one each from the BSP and the SP were elected to the lower House.
