Lucknow— Former CM and BSP supremo Mayawati advised party workers to refrain from extravagance and focus on strengthening the party at the grassroots level. Addressing the party functionaries at the State Headquarters in Lucknow, she announced that the BSP will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls separately. Mayawati emphasized the importance of strategic candidate selection and revealed that the announcement of the Lok Sabha polls would follow the Vidhan Sabha elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. Notably, minor adjustments were made within the State party unit during the meeting.

The media persons and the party workers present at the venue were surprised to see Akash Anand, the National Coordinator of the party, who is leading a BSP Rath Yatra in Rajasthan. He was seen conversing with senior BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra.

Analyzing the Costs of Alliances for BSP

Addressing the party workers, Mayawati said that the reason for not forming any alliance with any party is that the alliance partner of BSP benefits at its cost. The former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh said that the BSP has lost more than it gains in UP as the alliance partner is not able to transfer their votes to BSP, while the votes of BSP get transferred to them; this affects the morale of the party workers.

Attacking the BJP, she said that the narrow, casteist, and communal policies of the government along with inflation, poverty, and unemployment have made the lives of the people hell; therefore, the BJP is continuously losing its mandate and this would continue. She pointed out that the policies of BJP and Congress have been the same and have not benefited the people of Sarva samaj, especially those of the poor, tribals, Dalits, Other Backward Classes, religious minorities, etc.

BSP: Gained in alliance

Notwithstanding the statement of BSP supremo, the figures have a different story to tell – BSP got 0 seats in the 2014 Loksabha Polls when it contested alone despite securing 19.5% of votes; whereas it won 10 seats in 2019 when it went to the polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party.

Speaking to The Mooknayak Vishwanath Pal, the BSP state president said, “hon’ble BSP supreme Mayawati has said that the BSP is not in a coalition with any party, but still, it is in alliance with the SC/ST/OBC Muslim and the liberal sections of Brahmin, Baniya, Kshatriya of society. He said that there is nothing new in this and in 2007 when the BSP came to power, the party was not in alliance with any party but with all the sections of society, including that of Brahmin, Vaishya, Kshatriya.

Talking about the strategies of the party, he said that the committees at the booth and the sector level have been formed; we have been directed by Behenji to organize meetings at the sector level, where will tell the people that there is a need for the Bahujan Samaj Party despite there being provisions for SC/ST/OBC minorities and poor people of Savarna Samaj are not getting justice; and as Babasaheb said that if the people implement the constitution are fair then the constitution will also be not able to work properly.