Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Wednesday said that despite giving adequate representation to Muslims in the Lok Sabha elections, the community failed to understand her party.
The Bahujan Samaj Party, which contested 424 seats across the country and 79 in Uttar Pradesh, failed to win in even a single constituency. It had fielded 35 Muslim candidates.
“In this situation, the party will give an opportunity to them [Muslims] in future elections after serious deliberations so that it does not suffer a terrible loss like this election in future,” said Mayawati.
She added that a majority of Dalits, especially the Jatav community, had voted in favour of the Bahujan Samaj Party. The former chief minister also said that the party will analyse the Lok Sabha results in Uttar Pradesh at every level and take steps in the interest of the Bahujan movement.
The Bahujan Samaj Party had failed to secure a single seat in the 2014 polls as well. In 2019, when it contested the general elections in an alliance with the Samajwadi Party, it won 10 seats.
However, this time, Mayawati did not join the Opposition’s INDIA bloc and also stayed away from the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
The Lok Sabha results showed that the INDIA bloc constituent Samajwadi Party emerged as the single largest party in Uttar Pradesh, winning 37 out of 80 seats. Its ally, the Congress won six seats.
The BJP won 33 seats in the state. Its vote share fell to 41.37% from the all-time high of 49.98% in 2019.
Also read:
- Why the BJP took a hit in Uttar Pradesh
- Modi pulled bahujan voters to the BJP. Many are now drifting away
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