JOIN USReady to even vote for BJP: Mayawati claims to leave no stone unturned to defeat Samajwadi Party
A little over a year after they buried their differences to forge an electoral alliance to defeat the BJP in Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BSP and the Samajwadi Party (SP) have turned sworn enemies once again after seven BSP MLAs virtually defected to the SP ahead of the Rajya Sabha biennial polls in the state.
A furious BSP supremo Mayawati on Thursday termed her short-lived electoral alliance with the SP a ''big mistake'' and vowed to teach the SP a lesson even if it meant supporting the BJP.
''The decision to ally with the SP in 2019 LS polls was taken in haste and therefore it failed to yield the expected results....the SP can not be trusted,'' Mayawati said here.
Accusing the SP of trying to break her party, Mayawati said that she had even withdrawn the case pertaining to an attack on her after the BSP had withdrawn support to the then SP-BSP coalition government in 2003 after the two parties struck an alliance in the LS polls at the insistence of SP President Akhilesh Yadav.
''We will teach SP a lesson in the upcoming polls to the UP Legislative Council....our party will support even the BJP or any other opposition party to defeat the SP nominees,'' Mayawati remarked.
The BSP had fielded its lone candidate in the biennial polls for ten RS seats from the state though the party did not have the required numbers. It apparently hoped to garner the spare votes from the BJP, SP and other parties.
Initially, it appeared that there would be no contest as only ten candidates filed their nominations, including eight from the BJP and one each from the SP and BSP. The SP, however, queered the pitch for the BSP nominee by backing an independent nominee, who became the 11th candidate.
Though the independent nominees' nomination papers were rejected during the scrutiny, seven BSP MLAs met Akhilesh and pledged their support to the party, incurring the wrath of BSP Chief Mayawati.
Mayawati suspended all the seven MLAs and said that her party would move a petition before the assembly speaker seeking their disqualification.
''Is there anything else to say?'' Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked apparently hinting at a tacit understanding between the BJP and the BSP.