Maya sends conflicting signal on alliance with SP

Cracks appeared in the much-touted five-month-old Mahagathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh with BSP supremo Mayawati sending conflicting signals on its continuance even as Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav remained hopeful.

At a review meeting of the party held in Delhi on Monday, Mayawati, in a major departure from her party's policy, declared that the BSP would put up its candidates in the forthcoming UP assembly by-polls on 12 seats, which had fallen vacant after election of several MLAs to the Lok Sabha.

Sources in the BSP said that Mayawati also told the party leaders that the SP "failed" to get its votes transferred to the BSP nominees resulting in their defeat at many places.

"The Yadav community did not vote for Akhilesh... it supported BJP as a result of which even Akhilesh's wife Dimple Yadav lost in Kannauj LS constituency," the BSP supremo said at the meeting.

Incidentally, the BSP, which had drawn a blank in the 2014 LS polls, managed to win 10 seats in the state in the just-concluded general elections, mainly riding on the SP support.

The SP, on the other hand, suffered a severe loss by winning only five seats, while three of the Yadav family members, including Dimple, were defeated in their bastions.

The two one time arch rivals had declared earlier that their alliance would continue irrespective of the outcome of the polls. Interestingly the BSP had not contested assembly by-polls in the state in past for over a decade.

SP President Akhilesh, however, remained hopeful that the alliance would continue. On Monday he addressed a rally in his Lok Sabha constituency of Azamgarh. Several senior BSP leaders, including the party MP from the neighbouring Lalganj LS seat Sangeeta Azad, were also present.