Bahujan Samaj Party sipremo Mayawati announced on Thursday that she has decided to tie up with Ajit Jogi's Janta Congress Chhattisgarh in the upcoming Chhattisgarh elections. The move comes as a major setback to Congress efforts to build a nation-wide alliance against the BJP, as Jogi was ousted from the party in 2016.
The BSP also said that if their alliance comes to power, Ajit Jogi, 72, will be made the CM.
"The Bahujan Samaj Party has decided to contest upcoming Assembly polls in alliance with Janta Congress Chhattisgarh. The BSP will fight on 35 seats and Janata Congress Chhattisgarh will contest on 55 seats. If we win, Ajit Jogi will be the CM," said BSP chief Mayawati.
She went ahead and named 22 candidates for Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress failed to churn out a seat-sharing formula for the upcoming state polls.
Her negotiations with the Congress for an alliance in Madhya Pradesh reached a deadlock over the share of seats. Mayawati also said that the BSP will ally with only those parties which are ready to allocate respectable seats for her party.
The Dalit powerhouse, who holds a sway in parts of northern India too, said: "The alliance partner should also be working for the upliftment of Dalits and adivasis."
In Chhattisgarh, where 11.6% of the population are Dalits, the community plays an important as vote bank in areas such as Janjgir-Champa, Raigarh, and Bastar.
The BJP, led by Raman Singh, has been in power in the state for the past 15 years.
Earlier, the BSP was not in favour of forming alliances with other political parties, rather it relied on social arithmetic of castes and communities. It seems to have reworked its strategy now.
In Karnataka, it tied up with the JD(S), and in Uttar Pradesh, surprising critics, the party forged an understanding with its arch-rival Samajawadi Party. The party is looking to expand its base and forging alliances seems to be the way forward.
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