Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Monday announced that her party will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls on its own without joining hands with any alliance. Addressing a press conference on Monday, she also trained guns on Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in alliance with whom she contested the 2019 polls, saying he changed colour like a chamaleon.
The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said that her party did not benefit from contesting polls in alliance so it has been decided that it will descend the electoral arena alone. She also rubbished reports of her retirement from politics.
"I want to clarify that our party (BSP) will go solo in the upcoming (2024) Lok Sabha polls," said Mayawati on her 68th birthday.
"With the backing of people from backward community, Dalits, tribals and Muslims, we had formed a full majority government in UP in 2007, and that's why we have decided to contest the Lok Sabha polls alone," she added.
"We will maintain a distance with those who are casteist and believe in communalism, and we will not join any alliance," she added.
Launching an attack on Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre and UP, the BSP chief said that rather than uplifting people from poverty, the saffron party is trying to make them slaves by giving free rations.
""Instead of uplifting people from poverty and providing them employment, the central and state (UP) governments are providing them with some free ration and trying to make them their salves. However, our government in UP had provided people employment to empower them," she remarked.