In this file photo, BSP chief Mayawati is seen with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. BSP supremo Mayawati Monday announced a permanent end to the gathbandhan with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party saying the party will contest all future elections on its own. She added that SP’s behaviour after Lok Sabha polls forced BSP to think if it will be possible to defeat the BJP in future.
“Despite SP’s ant-Dalit government and decisions between 2012-17 we decided to go ahead with the gathbandhan and forget the past. However, the behaviour of the SP after the Lok Sabha general elections compels the BSP to think whether it will be possible to defeat the BJP again. That is not possible. So, in the interest of the party and the movement, the BSP will now fight all the major elections on its own,” she tweeted.
Explained: BSP minus Samajwadi Party, between the lines
Mayawati’s decision comes after an all India meeting of the BSP was held in Lucknow Sunday followed by a late night round of state-wise meetings. Earlier this month, Mayawati had announced that the party would contest the upcoming bypolls separately but had kept the window open for an alliance in the future.
Mayawati highlighted SP’s poor performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections blamed SP for the split vote of ‘Yadav’ community. She pointed out that even strong contenders of SP were defeated in the election.
The SP and BSP had tied up before the Lok Sabha bypolls in the state in early 2018 wherein they defeated the BJP in Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana. The two parties then decided in January to extend their tie-up to the general elections. At the time, Mayawati described the alliance, which marked the coming together of bitter rivals after nearly 25 years of hostility, as the “rajnaitik kranti (political revolution) of 2019”.
The upcoming bypolls are to be held in 11 Assembly seats after eight MLAs of the BJP and one each of Apna Dal (S), SP and BSP were elected to Lok Sabha.
