BSP to form next government in UP: Azad Gandhi

Bangalore, June 22 (UNI) The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) today claimed that it would form a government on its own by securing a majority in the coming elections to the Uttar Pradesh assembly.

Talking to reporters, Rajya Sabha member and Party General Secretary Azad Gandhi, who was here to attend the South-India and Maharashtra state level Office Bearers Conference to be held on Sunday, said his party would form the next government as the people of UP are disgusted with the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) ''The SP had ushered in a goonda raj and utter lawlessness prevailed in our state,'' he added.

He said the party would not ally with any other party in the coming elections and exuded confidence that people of UP would give his party an overwhelming victory and teach a fitting lesson to SP Chief and UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

''The BSP will beat the SP at the hustings. You can discount both the Congress and the BJP as they have lost their base in the state and people have rejected them. They will only be fighting for the third place,'' he added.

He alleged the BJP leaders in Uttar Pradesh were disillusioned with their party and this was evident when 15 of its legislators cross voted in favour of a BSP candidate in the recent elections to the Upper House.

To a question, he said ''Coalition governments do not survive in UP. Such experiments have failed in the past. When we joined hands with the Congress, we helped it win 33 assembly seats. But the Congress failed to help us. Hence we will contest the coming elections on our own and form a government.

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