BSP formally severs alliance with SP

Lucknow, June 24: A day after launching a scathing attack on the Samawadi Party, BSP chief Mayawati snapped alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav-led party and said tha party "will now fight all the small and big elections on its own".

Matawati had yesterday squarely blamed the SP for the miserable performance of their alliance in the Lok Sabha elections 2019. She had said that the SP's government did not work for the non-Yadavs and Dalits in the state during Akhilesh's term as the Chief Minister.

"The Samajwadi Party's behaviour after Lok Sabha polls forced us to think if it would be possible to defeat BJP by continuing the alliance. We came to a conclusion that it was not possible. Therefore, in the interest of the party and the movement, BSP will now fight all the small and big elections on its own," Mayawati tweeted today.

The cracks had started to appear earlier this month itself when Mayawati said that her party would fight by-elections to 11 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh alone.

Mayawati on June 4 minced no words and said 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. She had then, however, said that alliance with SP is intact for now.

She had also said that the SP must get its act together, failing which the alliance may end.

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.