BSP to go solo in Assembly bypolls, alliance with SP intact for now

Lucknow, June 04: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Tuesday said that her party would fight by-elections to 11 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh alone. She, however, said that alliance with SP is intact for now.

Mayawati minced no words and that the Samajwadi party (SP) was unable to hold on to even its core voter base. SP's base vote - the Yadav community- did not support the party in the Lok Sabha polls. She added that the alliance clearly did not benefit the BSP.

Mayawati had yesterday called for an important review meeting in Delhi to take stock of their performance in Lok Sabha elections. BSP supremo today said political compulsions have forced her to go solo in the assembly by-elections.

"The core base of Yadavs did not vote for the SP even in the party's strongholds. We thus need to think about the situation. We feel sorry for the loss of strong SP candidates but want to ask that if the SP did not get even its core votes, how did it transfer votes to BSP?" she told ANI today.

In a veiled manner, Mayawati said the SP must get its act together, failing which the alliance may end.

"It's not a permanent break. If we feel in future that SP Chief succeeds in his political work, we will again work together. But if he doesn't succeed, it will be good for us to work separately. So we have decided to fight the by-elections alone," Mayawati added.

A total of 11 assembly bypolls are due in UP after MLAs won the Lok Sabha polls.

Furthermore, the BSP supremo said her relationship with Akhilesh Yadav isn't only for politics. "Ever since SP-BSP coalition took place, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav have given me 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 was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP won 62 of 80 parliamentary seats in Lok Sabha elections, nine seats less than 2014, and its Apna Dal ally won two seats. The SP-BSP alliance's tally settled at 15. The vote share of both parties (combined) dropped from 42.2 per cent (2014) to 37.3 per cent. Both SP and BSP had expected that the vote shares put together will help them win big but they failed.

The BSP had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections on 38 seats of Uttar Pradesh in a pre-poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal. The Samajwadi Party contested on 37 seats while RLD contested on three seats; two seats of Amethi and Raebareli were left for Congress.