Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Sunday clarified that her party will contest the 2022 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh alone, amid media reports of a tie-up with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.
In a series of tweets, she said her party will fight the Uttarakhand Assembly polls alone as well.
“A news is being broadcast on a media news channel since yesterday that the AIMIM and BSP will fight the upcoming assembly elections in UP together,” she tweeted. “This news is completely false, misleading, and baseless. There is not even an iota of truth in this and the BSP vehemently denies it.”
There reports of BSP forming an alliance with AIMIM and former Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar-led Suheldeo Bhartiya Samaj Party under the umbrella of Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha to contest the state elections, according to News18. There were speculations that Mayawati and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi have held several rounds of talks and the latter was coming to Lucknow next month to formalise the alliance.
The development comes amid a crisis in the BSP. The party performed poorly in the panchayat polls held in May and finished third, behind the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party.
The BSP had also expelled two of its senior leaders, Lalji Verma and Ramachal Rajbhar, for anti-party activities. Rajbhar was a former state party chief and a minister in the previous Mayawati-led government. Verma was the legislature party leader in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
On June 15, nine MLAs expelled by the BSP over the last four years, excluding Verma and Rajbhar, had met Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. While Yadav did not give details about the meeting, he said that they will soon join his party.
Mayawati’s party is most likely contesting the upcoming Assembly elections alone. In March, she had announced that the BSP would contest the polls in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry alone, citing “bitter experiences” of forming an alliance with other political outfits.
However, the BSP has tied up with Shiromani Akali Dal to contest the Assembly elections in Punjab next year. The BSP has a considerable influence over the 31% Dalit votes in the state. It will contest 20 of the 117 seats. The remaining 97 seats have been allotted to Shiromani Akali Dal.
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