Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Sunday addressed the first joint rally of the BSP, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance, and predicted imminent defeat for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Lok Sabha election 2019.

“Now that the BJP is panicking, you should know they are on their way out... and grand alliance will come to power,” she said at the rally in Deoband in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur, days before the general election kicks off.

Mayawati added that the BJP will lose the elections because of its “policies inspired by hatred, especially their ‘chowkidar [watchman]’ campaign... Chowkidari and jumlebazi [hollow promises] will not help them to win votes,” the BSP chief said.

Drawing a parallel, Mayawati said that the Congress was out of power because of its wrong policies. “The Congress has failed, despite ruling for so many years. In the Congress-ruled states, wrongful practices came to notice... so they eventually lost their voter base,” she said, flanked by alliance partner and SP president Akhilesh Yadav.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister further alleged that the Congress does not want the alliance to win, even if the Rahul Gandhi-led party is unable to win the election. “The Congress is not strong enough to give a tough fight to BJP... only the grand alliance can fight the BJP.”

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav took a dig at PM Modi and said that in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the prime minister had come before the public as the “chaiwala” (tea-seller) and has now returned once again as the “chowkidar” (watchman).

“One by one we will defeat all the chowkidars,” Yadav said.

Echoing Mayawati’s statement, Yadav – who has previously refrained from attacking the former alliance partner Congress — urged people to shun both the BJP and the Congress, and vote en bloc for the SP-BSP-RLD alliance.

“Not a single vote should be divided. Both the BJP and the Congress are the same. There is not much difference between these parties,” he said.

RLD chief Ajit Singh took a swipe at the BJP’s “achche din” promise, saying that the “good days” were not meant for the people of the country but for PM Modi himself. “What has PM Modi done in five years? He was not talking about your achche din, but his own achche din,” the Jat leader said.

(With agency inputs)

First Published: Apr 08, 2019 02:02 IST