UP Election Result: Mayawati Opens Up On BSP's Poll Debacle, Blames SP & Media For Poor Show

Asserting that the BSP’s fight against the BJP was not just political but ideological too, Mayawati said that there were rumours that her party was not contesting elections as strongly as the SP

New Delhi: A day after the results to the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections were declared, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati went on to explain the reason behind the party’s poll debacle.

The BSP chief blamed the ‘aggressive propaganda’ of the media and political rival Samajwadi Party (SP) for leading the anti-BJP voters into thinking that her party was the ‘B team of BJP’, thereby, driving away the Muslim voters. She also said that the fear of a ‘Jungle Raj’ if SP came to power made many of her supporters shift to BJP.

Getting only one seat in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati, as quoted by news agency PTI, said, “This decision by the Muslims harmed the BSP because the party's supporters among the upper castes, backwards and other communities were made to fear that the 'jungle raj' will return to UP again if the Samajwadi Party is elected to power. That is why these communities went to the BJP.”

Asserting that the BSP’s fight against the BJP was not just political but ideological too, Mayawati said that there were rumours that her party was not contesting elections as strongly as the SP, that drove away the anti-BJP votes.   

Mayawati also said that the Muslim community has made a ‘mistake’ by trusting the SP instead of the ‘time-tested’ BSP.

Notably, BSP had contested all the 403 seats on its own and managed to win just one - Rasra in Maharajganj.

"Had there been a triangular contest in Uttar Pradesh then the results would have been as per the expectations of BSP. Then BJP could have been stopped from coming to power. In all, the Muslim community was with BSP but its vote went to SP," Mayawati said.

However, the BSP supremo called on the party workers and leaders to not get demoralised by the poll outcome and stressed the need to take the party forward.

The Mayawati-led party had fielded 97 Muslim candidates in the Uttar Pradesh elections while the Samajwadi Party had fielded 64 candidates from the minority community.

All the 36 winning Muslim candidates are from the Akhilesh Yadav-led party and in addition to jailed Azam Khan, his son Abdullah Azam and Nahid Hasan from Kairana also won on SP tickets.