Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Wednesday announced she would not be contesting in the coming Lok Sabha election.
Mayawati, who has become chief minister of Uttar Pradesh a total of four times, was being considered a probable candidate for prime minister in the event of a fractured mandate in which neither the Congress or BJP had sufficient number of MPs.
Speaking to mediapersons in Lucknow on Wednesday, Mayawati claimed she may contest elections “later” and decided against contesting keeping in mind the “current political situation” in India. Intriguingly, she also said she would be “happy if the next prime minister is from Uttar Pradesh”.
Mayawati had kickstarted preparations for the Lok Sabha polls by stitching up an alliance with the Samajwadi Party, her bitter rival for nearly three decades. Mayawati's BSP failed to win a single seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and was reduced to its worst seat tally in the last Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
Mayawati has also announced alliances with Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena in Andhra Pradesh and has an understanding with the JD(S). A key aide of H.D. Deve Gowda joined the BSP last week in a “friendly understanding” between the parties.
