The Lok Janshakti Party, an NDA ally, on Saturday, 23 March dismissed the SP-BSP tie-up in Uttar Pradesh as opportunistic, and challenged Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati to declare a Muslim as the chief ministerial candidate in the assembly polls in the state. LJP founding president and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan said,
‘Both SP and BSP care only for their own interests. They have joined hands in the name of safeguarding the interests of the minorities, but actually they are not confident of taking on the BJP on their own steam. If they (SP, BSP) are so concerned about the minorities let them declare a Muslim as the chief ministerial candidate when the next assembly polls are held.’