Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati announced on Monday, 24 June, that her party will contest all future elections alone, making a clean break with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP), with whom BSP had fought the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Taking to Twitter to make the announcement, Mayawati wrote that the decision was being taken in view of SP’s behaviour after the general elections.
“So, in the interest of the party and the movement, the BSP will now fight all future minor-major elections on its own,” Mayawati wrote on the social media platform.
‘Had Overlooked SP’s Problems for the Country’
In a thread on Twitter, she said that it was a known fact that the SP, between 2012 and 2017, had taken decisions against the BSP – anti-Dalit ones – prevented reservations in promotions and that there had been a trend of deterioration in law and order.
Mayawati said that that she had overlooked all of these problems with the SP for the sake of the country and its public interest and had also done justice to the gathbandhan.
However, in view of SP’s behaviour post-polls, she said that she did not feel that aligning with them would help BSP in defeating the BJP anymore, which is why she was taking the decision to fight all future elections in the interest of the party and the movement.
Mayawati’s decision comes after reports on Monday said that she had launched a tirade against the SP chief, saying that she had not received even one call or a visit from him after the poll loss.
"After the mahagathbandhan lost the elections, I received no call from Akhilesh. BSP general secretary Satish Mishra asked him to speak to me, but he just wouldn't listen. But because I am senior to him, I called him up instead and expressed sadness over his family members losing," Mayawati told party members at the meeting, an NDTV report said.
‘Mayawati’s Decision Will Weaken Social Justice’
Hours after Mayawati announced her plans of going solo in future elections, a senior SP leader accused her of “weakening” the fight for social justice, reported PTI.
SP National General Secretary Ramashankar Vidyarthi said that Mayawati was speaking against the SP in haste because of the Dalit support of the party and its leader Akhilesh Yadav.
“People know the reality about what the 'malkin' of the alliance has done”, he added.
Commenting on the development, Congress spokesperson Dwijendra Tripathi said that in politics, commitment is most important.
“Commitment with the people as well as among political parties is very important... if people feel that politicians cannot keep their words while dealing with each other, they will not be able to keep their promises made to the people,” Tripathi said.
She also called Akhilesh ‘anti-Muslim’, according to IANS, saying that he had asked her to not give tickets to Muslims as it would result in religious polarisation.
Mayawati’s Alliance U-Turn
Earlier in June, after the result of the Lok Sabha elections, and the mahagathbandhan’s brutal rout in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati had announced that the BSP-SP alliance would not be contesting the upcoming bypolls. Akhilesh Yadav had confirmed this.
However, Mayawati had left the option open for future alliances with SP, saying that it was not a permanent break.
"It is not a permanent break. If we feel in future that the 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've decided to fight the by-elections alone," said Mayawati, reported India Today.
She had also added then that her relation with Akhilesh and his wife Dimple Yadav was not limited to politics and would continue forever.
(With inputs from PTI, India Today and NDTV)
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