In a setback to all efforts to unite the Opposition, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Sunday announced that her party would go alone in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the forthcoming State elections this year. She also demanded the return of the ballot paper voting system. Addressing a press conference, Mayawati said the BSP would not align with any party for the forthcoming elections in various States as the ideology of her party was different from others.
She also claimed that the Congress and other parties were creating a misleading impression that the BSP was ready to join hands with them.
“I want to make it clear that our party will not have any alliance in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and other States as well as in next year’s Lok Sabha polls," Mayawati told reporters.
Mayawati said past experiences showed that in the case of forging alliances, the votes of other parties were not transferred to the BSP and such experiments only harmed the party.
She also targeted the Opposition and said that the BSP was being stopped from moving forward. "BSP has formed the Government four times in the State (UP), and the party has worked for the public through welfare schemes for poor and needy people.
“All opposition parties have maintained internal connivance and have come against BSP. Today, the people of all the classes are upset," the BSP leader said.
The former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh also demanded the return of the ballot paper voting system saying there is "something wrong" with the EVMs.
"Something is wrong with EVMs, some are sabotaging it, during ballot paper time, our number of seats and percentage of votes used to increase in all polls. Polls must be conducted with ballot paper again," Mayawati demanded.
The BSP celebrated party chief Mayawati's 67th birthday on January 15 as Jankalyankari Diwas. Mayawati also released the 18th edition of her work "A Travelogue of My Struggle-ridden Life and BSP Movement" in a programme organised in the party’s state unit office in Mall Avenue here.
