Big announcement from Mayawati.
BSP Supremo Mayawati on Wednesday announced that her party will contest separately in the upcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Mayawati had earlier announced that BSP will fight in Chhattisgarh in alliance with Ajit Jogi's party. Now, BSP has announced to go alone in the other two key battleground states denting Congress' chances of coming back to power there.
Speaking to ANI, Mayawati lashed out at Former Madhya Pradesh CM and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. She said, " Congress leaders like Digvijaya Singh do not wish for a Congress- BSP alliance. They are afraid of agencies like ED, CBI." Mayawati dubbed Digivijaya Singh as BJP agent and denied that she is under pressure from Centre to not tie-up with Congress. However, keeping a window open for future rapprochement, Mayawati said,". I feel that Sonia Gandhi & Rahul Gandhi's intentions for Congress-BSP alliance are honest. However some Congress leaders are sabotaging this."
Also Read: Decoding Mayawati's gameplan
Mayawati accused Congress of getting arrogant and said that the grand old party is under misconception that they can defeat BJP on their own, but ' ground reality is that people haven't forgiven Congress party for their mistakes&corruption'. She alleged that Congress is not ready to do a course correction and announced that BSP will fight separately in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. She said that like BJP, Congress is also trying to destroy BSP.
"In Rajasthan, the Congress was offering us only nine seats out of 200 assembly seats, in Madhya Pradesh 15-20 (out of 231 seats in the state), in Chhattisgarh only 5-6 seats out of 90. We have noticed that whenever we have contested an election in alliance, all our votes get transferred to Congress. The BSP loses more due to alliance as all its votes get transferred to Congress. Keeping in mind such things, we think Congress is trying to eliminate small parties like BSP in the name of wiping out BJP", said Mayawati.
BSP has pockets of influence among Dalits and SC/ST votes in both the states. It won 6.29% votes in MP in 2013 and 3.4% votes in Rajasthan in the last assembly election. More than Rajasthan, BSP contesting separately may prove to be costly for Congress in Madhya Pradesh where BJP-Congress are locked in an extremely close fight. Mayawati had earlier announced candidates for 20 odd seats in MP. Many experts though believe Mayawati is increasing pressure on Congress so that BSP gets a good seat-sharing deal in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections. But whatever may be the bigger play, BSP going alone is a big blow to the Mahagathbandhan envisioned by the opposition leaders against BJP.
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