BSP will go it alone in Raj, MP polls: Mayawati

Lucknow: In a setback to Opposition unity ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BSP chief Mayawati said Wednesday her party would not enter into a tie-up with the Congress for the upcoming Assembly elections in Rajasthan or Madhya Pradesh.

The BSP chief said even though Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi appeared in favour of an alliance, there were other "senior leaders" who worked to foil any possibility of an understanding.

"The Congress is under the wrong impression that it can match all the tactics of BJP...If the BJP faces just the Congress, it can easily form the government. Still, the Congress does not seem prepared for an honest alliance between opposition parties" Mayawati said.

The BSP chief claimed that the people of the three states going to polls later this year were not in favour of the BJP returning to power but due to the Congress' "stubborn attitude", her party had to strike an alliance with a regional party in Chhattisgarh. Mayawati has announced an alliance with former chief minister Ajit Jogi's outfit in Chhattisgarh.

"Now, the BSP has decided to go it alone in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. We will not fight the elections with the Congress in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan at any cost," Mayawati said reading out a statement on TV.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister claimed the attitude of the Congress showed it was not serious to stop the BJP from coming back to power and was "more interested in finishing the BSP movement and harming the party".

"It was in the larger people's and national interest that our party agreed to an alliance to check the BJP, which was pursuing anti-people, anti-farmer, anti-poor and pro-capitalist policies, from coming to power," Mayawati said.

She claimed it was because of the Congress' attitude that BJP remained in power in MP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and other states for a long time and yet the party had not mended itself.

Congress leaders like Digvijay Singh do not wish for a Congress-BSP alliance, she claimed. See P5