NDA Or Opposition's INDIA? Mayawati Clarifies BSP's Stand On Assembly, Lok Sabha Polls

Mayawati, in a media briefing, said BSP would go alone for the assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) national president Mayawati

Source : Getty

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Wednesday categorically said her party won't join the NDA or the Opposition alliance, named INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance), for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. 

In a video statement, Mayawati said BSP would go alone for the assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year.

"BSP will go it alone in the assembly elections of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana. In Punjab and Haryana, it can form an alliance with regional parties provided they don't have an understanding with NDA or the changed UPA," PTI quoted Mayawati as saying.

"As the Lok Sabha elections are around the corner, our preparations are going in full swing and we are also holding meetings across the country," she said. 

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Interestingly, Mayawati had supported the UPA in the 2014 general elections but failed to open its account. 

Mayawati also lashed out at the Congress, saying the party was forming an alliance with like-minded casteist and capitalist parties to come into power, PTI reported.

Reacting to Mayawati's remarks, Samajwadi Party spokesperson Ameeque Jamei told PTI, "I think Mayawati got a call from Home Ministry that the mega opposition meeting of 26 parties should be opposed." 

The BSP was not invited for the Opposition meeting in Patna and Bengaluru. 

Earlier, Mayawati had said the Opposition meeting was nothing but an example of "dil mile na mile, haath milate rahiye (joining of hands, not hearts)". 

In tweets in Hindi, Mayawati had said, "In a country suffering from inflation, poverty, unemployment, backwardness, illiteracy, ethnic hatred, religious violence etc., it is clear from the state of the Bahujans that parties like the Congress and BJP are not capable of implementing the humanistic egalitarian constitution framed by Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar."

"Before any such meeting...it would have been better if these parties, to justify people's faith in them, had come clean on their intentions. How long will 'moonh mein Ram, bagal mein chhuri' last?" the former UP CM tweeted.

The Hindi proverb used by her roughly translates to fake praise and hidden intentions.