BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday set a “respectable” seat-sharing arrangement as a condition for pre-poll alliance with Congress in the upcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. (Express Photo/Vishal Srivastav/File)
Two days after underlining that her party was following the policy of forging alliances with different parties in different states only to remove the BJP from power, BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday set a “respectable” seat-sharing arrangement as a condition for pre-poll alliance with Congress in the upcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Targeting the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in the states over the incidents of mob lynching, Mayawati also called for an “alliance government” at the Centre and said the country, in the current scenario, needs a ‘majboor’ government instead of a ‘majboot’ government.
“There should be an alliance government at the Centre which is always compelled to work in the interest of the public and the country and the government cannot behave like a dictator.”
“For some Congress leaders who often give different reactions in the media regarding an alliance with the BSP for the assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the party clarifies to them that the BSP will make an alliance with Congress to contest in these states only when our party is given a respectable number of seats in the alliance,” she said in a statement.
Failing a “respectable” seat-sharing arrangement, Mayawati indicated, the BSP will contest all seats independently. For now, she said, the BSP is preparing to contest all seats in these three states. In an organisational reshuffle last week, she had deputed more senior leaders for supervision of the preparations for the assembly elections.
In her statement, Mayawati said her party will contest in alliance with “any party” only when her party will be given a respectable number of seats.
Her statement comes at a time when some Congress leaders have spoken on talks with the BSP regarding poll alliances in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh while other Congress leaders have had reservations on a tie-up in Rajasthan.
Earlier, the BSP had entered into an alliance with JD(S) in Karnataka and the INLD in Haryana. Its support to the SP had helped the latter defeat the BJP in bypolls to the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats.