Lucknow: After BSP party walked out of the pre-poll alliance with Congress over seat row, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief said, the party has no intentions to beg for a reasonable number of seats with Congress ahead of general elections scheduled for 2019.
BSP party shall contest alone in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh assembly polls, party chief Mayawati said this Tuesday, HT reports.
“If the Congress fails to offer respectable number of seats, the BSP will contest elections on its own,” she said.
She was in the capital to pay tributes to the party founder Kanshi Ram on his death anniversary in a programme organized at Bahujan Prerna Kendra.
During the event, she clearly stated that she would not bow to pressure tactics or conspiracies of rival political parties but continue with her effort to grab the key to power.
“The only condition BSP has put for an alliance is respectable (number of) seats. Instead of stitching the alliance, Congress leaders are following the path of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to malign the image of BSP leadership,” she alleged.
She further said that rival parties are using tricks and tactics to weaken BSP before the scheduled general elections, but these rival parties forgot BSP’s history that is full of struggles and that the party “ will not retreat and give a befitting reply to the rivals in the Lok Sabha election”.
She also declared the beginning of her election campaign which she intends to launch this October 13 in Chhattisgarh.
Meanwhile, when Congress UP president Raj Babbar was asked to comment on Mayawati’s statement, he said: “She is a respectable national president of a national party. She will never have to beg regarding the alliance. The Congress’ national leadership respects her and the party will have talks for an alliance with her with due respect.”
“Instead of offering respectable number of seats to the BSP, they are giving only a few seats. The BSP was left with no option but to ally with the Janata Congress Chattisgarh (JCC) led by former chief minister Ajit Jogi in Chattisgarh. In Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the party decided to contest on its own strength,” said a BSP party leader who does not wish to be named.
He added that Congress is repeating it’s the same mistake and with only a few months left in the Lok Sabha elections, Congress needs to rethink of its offer if it intends to form a grand alliance in UP and in other states where the BSP enjoys considerable influence over Dalit voters.