Mayawati shuts door on Congress, says 'no alliance with party anywhere'

In a setback to the opposition's bid of stitching an anti-BJP front for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, BSP supremo Mayawati on Tuesday said her party will not have any electoral tie-up with the Congress in any state for the polls.

BSP chief Mayawati. Photo PTI (File)

The BSP has made it clear that it would not have any electoral tie-up with the Congress in any state for the Lok Sabha elections.

The BSP has formed an alliance with the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh.

Of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the SP will contest 37 and the BSP 38, leaving three for the RLD and two for Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli) and Rahul Gandhi (Amethi).

NEW DELHI: In a setback to the opposition's bid of stitching an anti-BJP front for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, BSP supremo Mayawati on Tuesday said her party will not have any electoral tie-up with the Congress in any state for the polls. The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister made the remarks after meeting her party's senior leaders. In a statement, Mayawati said, "It is being made clear again that the Bahujan Samaj Party will not have any electoral alliance with the Congress in any state." Mayawati said that while several parties were eager to ally with the BSP in the Lok Sabha elections, it was not in her party's interest to take any step against its ideology for minor electoral gains. The BSP has formed an alliance with the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal, leaving out the Congress from the pre-poll pact in Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati's statement comes days after SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said that the Congress was "very much" part of their "mahagatbandhan" in Uttar Pradesh. "We have left two seats (Amethi and Rae Bareli) for the party (Congress)," he said. Referring to her party's pre-poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati said it was based on "mutual respect" and "honest intentions", adding that "the SP-BSP alliance is perfect enough to defeat the BJP, especially in Uttar Pradesh" Of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the SP will contest 37 and the BSP 38, leaving three for the Ajit Singh-led RLD and two for Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli) and Rahul Gandhi (Amethi). The BSP will put up its candidates mostly in western Uttar Pradesh, including Saharanpur, Bijnor, Nagina, Amroha, Meerut, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Agra and Fatehpur Sikri. Besides, the party will contest Aonla, Shahjahanpur, Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Misrikh, Mohanlalganj, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Farrukhabad, Akbarpur, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, Ambedkarnagar, Kaiserganj, Shrawasti, Domariyaganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Deoria, Bansgaon, Lalganj, Ghosi, Salempur, Jaunpur, Machhlishahr, Ghazipur and Bhadohi. In 2014, the BJP had won 71 seats in Uttar Pradesh while its ally Apna Dal had bagged two. The Samajwadi Party won 5 seats and the Congress two, while the BSP drew a blank. In the 2017 assembly polls, SP and BSP got 22 per cent votes each. In the politically-crucial Uttar Pradesh, there are about 22 per cent Dalits, 45 per cent OBCs and 19 per cent Muslims, whose vote share will be decisive in the general election. The election will pit the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) against a combination of opposition parties, including the Congress, the Left and several regional forces, with the latter still trying to stitch up a grand alliance to minimise the division of votes against the ruling combine. (With inputs from agencies)

Published at : 12 Mar 2019 06:40 PM (IST)

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