Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati snaps ties with Samajwadi Party

Formally shutting the door on Akhilesh’s party, BSP announces it will contest future polls alone

Updated : Jun 25, 2019, 05:45 AM IST

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati snaps ties with Samajwadi Party

Partying ways: SP president Akhilesh Yadav, BSP chief Mayawati, RLD chief Ajit Singh, SP General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav and others at an election rally during Lok Sabha polls campaign

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati snapped all relationships with her politically suitable ‘nephew’ Akhilesh Yadav ending five-month-old alliance with Samajwadi Party (SP), announcing in future BSP will contest all polls alone.

Mayawati’s final snapping-ties call with the SP came about a month after Lok Sabha poll defeat in Uttar Pradesh. In January this year, Mayawati and Samajwadi Party created a political history by joining hands to form alliance to take on Modi-led BJP primarily in Uttar Pradesh.

The alliance could not prove much as together they could win on only 15 seats. Even though Mayawati-led BSP managed to gain 10 seats from its tally of zero in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Akhilesh-led Samajwadi Party decimated to five seats from seven in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. What surprised everyone that despite the alliance, most of the Samajwadi Party’s Yadav clan including party’s first lady Dimple Yadav and cousins Dharmendra Yadav and Akshay Yadav also lost the elections.

WINNING STREAK

Political observers, however, believe that the win of 10 MPs has come as a breather for the BSP and the same has forced Mayawati to go alone in a bid to get back Dalit votebank, which to a certain extent if not more also has shifted towards BJP owing to strong Modi factor and BJP’s nationalism pitch in recently concluded Lok Sabha election.

This irked BSP chief Mayawati more than anyone else as in her first meeting with party zonal coordinators and office-bearers in Delhi a few days after the results were announced, Mayawati blamed the Samajwadi Party for the poor show and accused Akhilesh Yadav of not being able to get Yadav votes shifted in alliance favour. Mayawati cited the defeat of Dimple Yadav from Kannauj, Dharmendra Yadav from Badaun and Akshay Yadav from Ferozabad as the example of SP’s inability to shift Yadav votes. It was then she had declared that BSP would contest by-elections all alone and asked Akhilesh Yadav to mend his ways and strengthen party’s cadre if the alliance has to go on.

However, on Sunday, Mayawati held a meeting with party office bearers, MLAs and MPs to chalk out a strategy for the by-elections necessitated after around 11 MLAs vacated their seats following their win in Lok Sabha polls held recently and declared that BSP is snapping ties with SP in totality and would contest all big and small elections all alone.

Sources said that Mayawati was categorical in lambasting Samajwadi Party for the failure of alliance. During the meeting, she even quoted Akhilesh Yadav asking her not to field Muslim candidates as the same would lead to polarisation that would help the BJP. Sources quoted her saying that she however, refused to follow Akhilesh’s request.

― Zee Media Newsroom