SP-BSP pact collapsing? Maya readies to fight 11 bypolls alone

Swati Mathur & Neha Lalchandani | TNN | Updated: Jun 4, 2019, 2:04 IST

Highlights

The much-hyped “permanent gathbandhan” has run into troubled waters with BSP chief Mayawati asking her cadre to “be prepared” to contest bypolls to 11 seats in the UP assembly, and triggering talk that it may be splitsville time soon
At the meeting of elected representatives that lasted over two hours, Mayawati asked her cadre “not to depend on anyone”

BSP chief Mayawati.

NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW: Less than five months after BSP and SP buried over two decades of animosity to hammer out an alliance to defeat BJP, the much-hyped “permanent gathbandhan” has run into troubled waters with BSP chief Mayawati asking her cadre to “be prepared” to contest bypolls to 11 seats in the UP assembly, and triggering talk that it may be splitsville time soon.
The decision to contest bypolls on its own is crucial since BSP usually does not contest byelections and made an exception only in 2007 when it contested the Farrukhabad seat.
At the meeting of elected representatives that lasted over two hours, Mayawati asked her cadre “not to depend on anyone”. Though there was no formal call to end the gathbandhan and the BSP chief said she was “very unhappy” that the SP did not perform as well as it should have, practical concerns about her own and her party’s future seemed to trump worries about strained ties between the ‘Bua’ and her ‘bhatija’, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav.
Mayawati’s post-poll address dwelt on the split in the Yadav vote-bank because of internal warring in SP and Akhilesh’s uncle Shivpal Yadav parting ways with him. The Dalit leader with prime ministerial aspirations also said BSP will analyse the extent to which Shivpal, who formed Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party before elections, cut into SP’s traditional votes and impacted gathbandhan’s vote share. “Yadav votes were not transferred to us but our votes went to them. Samajwadi Party won where Muslims voted big for them,” she said.

“Gathbandhan’s success was contingent on SP chief Akhilesh Yadav having complete sway over the Yadav community votes. However, this did not happen because of the internal problems in SP,” a source quoted Mayawati as having told her party representatives.
A party worker said, “Mayawati said Akhilesh failed to ensure victory of family members”, alluding to electoral losses of three SP family members— Akhilesh’s spouse Dimple and cousins Dharmendra and Akshay from Kannauj, Badaun and Firozabad respectively.