Putting an end to speculations, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, on Tuesday, confirmed the party will be fighting the Uttar Pradesh bypolls alone. Since the results of the Lok Sabha elections were declared, cracks surfaced in the 'gathbandhan'—the alliance between Mayawati's BSP and Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party (SP). A total of 11 assembly bypolls are due in UP after the respective MLAs won the Lok Sabha polls.
“My relationship with Akhilesh is beyond politics,” Mayawati said, addressing media. Taking a dig at the SP's electoral debacle, she said: “We cannot ignore realities. SP couldn't even secure its base vote. She added that even Akhilesh's wife, Dimple Yadav, could not win the Kannauj seat. While the BSP and SP had vowed to rout the BJP from the state, the Lok Sabha elections saw BJP winning a staggering 64 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats. The SP only secured five seats while BSP won 10.
At a meeting of the Bahujan Samaj Party's Uttar Pradesh unit in New Delhi on Monday, she asked party workers not to depend on alliance to win votes, but to improve the party's organisation.
She told the gathering at the party headquarters that the BSP won 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh due to BSP's traditional vote bank and the votes of Samajwadi Party could not get transferred to its candidates. She cited poor performance of its alliances in various states during assembly and Lok Sabha elections to drive home the point that the BSP will have to strengthen its own organisational structure and not to depend on other parties to win votes.
