Union Minister and Republican Party of India chief Ramdas Athawale said his party plans on contesting the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, and is considering pitting Bollywood actor Rakhi Sawant against Mayawati if the Bahujan Samaj Party chief decides to contest the election. The state will conduct its Assembly elections in 2017.
Athawale said, “Mayawati has been shying away from fighting the polls herself. We would like to see if she is going to change that this time. If she does, we will field Rakhi Sawant, who is our women’s wing president, from the very seat the BSP chief chooses for herself,” PTI reported.
Stating that his party was “an integral part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance”, Athawale said it was ready to go it alone if the negotiations for an Assembly election alliance did not work out. “The Republican Party of India will go ahead and field its candidates in more than 200 out of 403 assembly segments of the state. We think it is necessary since Dalits of Uttar Pradesh have been feeling shortchanged by the BSP,” he said.
The Republican Party of India traces its origins to the 1950s and the Scheduled Castes’ Federation of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar. It has the support of the Dalits in Maharashtra, but has been tackling factionalism within the party.
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