Lucknow: BSP chief Mayawati on Saturday said that the Rajya Sabha election result will have no impact on her party's association with the Samajwadi Party and the two will work with even more force to defeat the BJP in the 2019 general elections.
A day after her party candidate lost to the BJP in an intense contest in Uttar Pradesh despite backing from the SP, the BSP supremo said the ruling party, which secured the win through "undemocratic" and "unconstitutional" means, is expecting that she will break off ties with the SP and "it (BJP) will have a field day in 2019", but she will not let it happen.
But she also voiced her dissaproval, saying that the Samajwadi Party should have assured that the seat went to her party by giving its candidate the first preference. “If I had been in place of Akhilesh Yadav, I would have given first priority to BSP candidate rather than the SP candidate,” she told reporters in Lucknow.
Of the 10 seats on offer, the BJP was assured of win in eight, while a joint opposition was assured of sending one and was in a close contest to push through a second. Akhilesh nominated SP’s Jaya Bachchan for the assured seat.
The BSP had to rely on support from the SP and the Congress to send its candidate, but failed to secure the numbers. BSP candidate Bhim Rao Ambedkar received 32 first preference votes, five short of the magic number in the state. He lost out to BJP’s Anil Kumar Agarwal in the second round of counting.
Mayawati was quick to add that her statement should not be seen as a crack in the alliance. “The closeness of SP and BSP is not going to change because of this Rajya Sabha result,” she said at the press conference.
“Akhilesh will gain more political prudence with time. But I assure the BJP that their wish will not be fulfilled - their dream of breaking the alliance,” she said, adding that the Rajya Sabha poll will have no impact on the closeness between the two parties. She said that Akhilesh should not be held responsible for the Rajya Sabha defeat. “LS polls and RS polls are different. The two have different dynamics. In bypolls people vote directly,” she added.
The BSP chief also hinted strongly that two parties could join hands for the Lok Sabha polls next year. “If everything goes well, SP and BSP will now work hard to defeat the BJP in 2019,” she said. This is the first time that she has admitted that the two parties could partner for the Lok Sabha polls. Initially, she had maintained that this was an understanding limited to the quid pro quo over the Lok Sabha bypoll and the Rajya Sabha election.
For 2019, Mayawati indicated that she is ready to open the doors for Congress too. Saying that the two had always had good relations, she said she was thankful to them for offering support. “Our cooperation has extended from the days of UPA. The high command of Congress has helped us,” she said.
Hitting out at the BJP, she alleged that the party had “misused government machinery” for its election win. “The BJP misused the government as it wanted to disturb the SP-BSP’s new-found closeness. Just like in the past Modi and Yogi used government machinery and muscle power to send an industrialist to the upper house,” she said.
Mayawati also suspended party MLA Anil Singh, who had voted in favour of the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP’s surprising victory has been pegged as a revenge for the loss it had suffered at the hands of the SP-BSP alliance in the Lok Sabha bypolls just a few days earlier.
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