'BSP will go solo in UP bypolls', Mayawati tells party leaders

The alliance had high expectations from the elections as the joint rallies held all over the state drew large crowds.

Picture: Akhilesh Yadav (Twitter account)

New Delhi:  BSP chief Mayawati on Monday asked party leaders to be prepared to contest the bypolls to 11 assembly segments alone. At a meeting of the Bahujan Samaj Party's Uttar Pradesh unit here, she said the alliance with Samajwadi Party hasn’t borne fruit in Lok Sabha elections, giving clear indications of the SP-BSP alliance not extending further. “The alliance did not secure Yadav votes and the losses in Yadav bastions of Kannauj and Badaun are examples,"she said. The Dalit leader accused Samajwadi Party workers of working against the mahagathbandhan at several constituencies. She hit out at Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSPL) chief Shivpal Yadav for transferring the alliance votes to BJP. She, however, said the BSP received complete support from Muslims on all Lok Sabha seats. For upcoming bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, whose dates aren't announced yet, Mayawati has deputed four party leaders on each of the state's four regions to strengthen the organisational structure . Three among them are Muslim leaders. A total of 11 assembly bypolls are due in UP after MLAs won the Lok Sabha polls.  Her remarks assume significance as the BSP does not usually contest bypolls. An official announcement regarding the decision is yet to be made. On Sunday, Mayawati removed the election coordinators of six states and state Presidents of two states due to party's poor performance in the national polls. The BSP chief sacked the coordinators of Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Odisha. The state Presidents of Delhi and Madhya Pradesh were also asked to stepped down since the party did not win any seat in these states. How did the Mahagathbandhan fare in 2019 Lok Sabha elections The Samajwadi Party came off worse than its coalition partner BSP as the caste arithmetic by the gathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh failed before a BJP wave in the Lok Sabha elections. Despite its high expectations from the alliance forged with Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party this time, the SP got just five seats - the same number it won in the 2014 elections. In contrast, the BSP which drew a blank last time won 10 of the 38 seats it contested under the seat-sharing pact this time. But its vote share fell four percentage points, from 22.35 per cent then to a little under 18 now. The Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally Apna Dal (S) won 64 seats out of the 80 in the state, compared to the 73 they won in 2014, a performance which went against what the SP-BSP-RLD `gathbandhan' was predicting. The SP even lost in the Yadav bastions of Kannauj and Badaun, indicating that even members of these castes had moved to the BJP. Second failed alliance experiment by Akhilesh Yadav In the 2017 assembly elections, Akhilesh Yadav forged an alliance with the Congress against the wishes of his father and party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav.  The SP tally had then come down to 47 from 224 in 2012. When Akhilesh Yadav formed a coalition with the BSP this time, his father openly expressed disapproval over the idea of giving "half of the seats" to a partner. Luck did not favour even the Yadavs' own family. Except Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, contestants from the family failed to re-enter the Lok Sabha Akhilesh Yadav won with a comfortable margin of 2.60 lakh votes, defeating Bhojpuri star and BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua. Mulayam Singh Yadav won in Mainpuri by over 94,000 votes, defeating BJP's Prem Singh Shakya. But Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple and cousins Dharmendra and Akshay did not make it to Parliament. In Firozabad, Akhilesh Yadav's estranged uncle and founder of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia, Shivpal Yadav, was relegated to the third spot, securing about 91,000 votes. But an SP leader claimed had Shivpal Yadav not parted ways with the party, he could have easily won. Like Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati took a big risk in becoming part of the coalition. The BSP chief not only joined hands with arch-rival SP but also campaigned for one-time sworn enemy Mulayam Singh Yadav in Mainpuri, asking her supporters to forget past bitterness. But she apparently failed to ensure that the core BSP voters transferred to the Samajwadi Party, wherever an SP nominee was fielded as a joint candidate. Mayawati’s PM ambitions shattered The alliance had high expectations from the elections as the joint rallies held all over the state drew large crowds. It also gave strength to Mayawati's apparent prime ministerial aspirations, now shattered due to the poor performance of opposition parties nationwide. In 2009, the BSP had won its highest ever number of Lok Sabha seats, clinching 20 from UP. In 2014, it won none. RLD’s poor showings in Lok Sabha polls The Rashtriya Lok Dal, the smallest partner of the alliance, raised its vote share marginally from 0.86 per cent last time to 1.67 per cent now. But this did not translate into any seats. The party was allotted three seats under SP-BSP-RLD pact. Its president Ajit Singh lost in Muzaffarnagar, his son Jayant was defeated in Baghpat and Narendra Singh was humbled in Mathura by actor-turned-politician Hema Malini of the BJP. (With additional information from PTI)