LUCKNOW: Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati cleared that the BSP is discussing alliances with other parties for future polls in Uttar Pradesh and other states and told her party men to be prepared for any situation.
“Although talks are underway for poll alliances in Uttar Pradesh and other states, you have to remain prepared for facing any situation in your respective states at all levels,” she said at a meeting here of national-level office bearers here.
According to a news published in TOI, BSP seeks 40 out of 80 seats in UP. The reports quoted BSP sources which says Mayawati’s silence was strategic and meant to signal to the prospective partners that they should leave at least 40 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP for the party. While they spoke on condition of anonymity, the comment tallies with the gameplan Mayawati recently unveiled before party workers. While addressing party workers in Lucknow last week, Mayawati had said that if BSP was not given “sammanjanak” (respectable seats), she could even contest the elections alone.
Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats of which the BJP and its allies had won 73 in the 2014 parliamentary elections. The Congress had won Amethi and Rae Bareli, while the Samajwadi Party (SP) won five seats. After the recent bypolls, SP’s tally in the Lok Sabha went up to seven.
The SP wrested the prestigious Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats from the BJP when it contested the bye-elections after reaching an understanding with the BSP.
A consolidation of OBC, Dalit and Muslim votes powered Samajwadi Party candidates to victory in Gorakhpur, a seat represented by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for five successive terms, and Phulpur, from where his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya was elected in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Siasat Web Team