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Opposition unity suffered a major setback on Wednesday with the most critical element in anti-BJP political chemistry, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), rejecting any alliance with the Congress in either Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan. Assembly elections are due in the next few months in both these States.
BSP president Mayawati accused the Congress of “stabbing me in the back” — casting grave doubts about the viability of opposition alliances, especially in the politically critical Uttar Pradesh, in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
“The Congress is not willing to make any compromise despite the challenge that the BJP has put before the voters. The BSP has always bowed to the national interest and supported their government at the Centre for ten years. But the Congress has stabbed the BSP in the back. It was the BJP that first targeted me with the Taj corridor case but it has escaped no one that the Congress used it to hound me for years. I was given a reprieve only by the Supreme Court,” said Mayawati. Mayawati has announced an alliance with former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi in Chhattisgarh, where also elections will be held this year.
This is likely to hurt the Congress in a State where the difference of votes between the Congress and the BJP in the 2013 Assembly elections was 97,574.
The BSP, on its own, secured 5,58,424 votes although it managed to win only one Assembly seat. The difference led to the BJP cornering 49 seats and a majority in the 90-member Assembly while the Congress got 39 seats. This time, Mayawati’s tie-up with the Congress rebel Ajit Jogi is bound to hurt the Congress in a closely fought election.
The extent of political cost of the BSP chief’s short press conference, accusing the Congress of “stabbing me in the back”, cannot be over-estimated in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, as also in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections where the Opposition had been counting on Mayawati to be the magnet for Dalit and most backward caste voters.
Congress “not serious”
Describing the Congress’s attitude as “ rassi jal gai par bal nahin gaya (they’ve lost everything but arrogance) ” , Mayawati heaped further scorn on the Congress, saying, “They (Congress) are pathetic. Despite repeated losses in elections — look at what happened in Gujarat— they still believe they can take on the BJP on their own. That leads me to suspect whether they are actually serious in defeating the BJP.”
Mayawati proceeded to narrate past humiliations that the Congress meted out not just to the BSP founder Kanshi Ram but also to BR Ambedkar who “had to resign from the Law Ministry, was not given Bharat Ratna”. She said the Congress is “arrogant and obdurate” and not willing to cede space to other parties even when it is not in a position to fight the BJP on its own.
BSP to contest alone
“We have now decided that even in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the BSP will fight on its own. The Congress’s attitude shows that they are more interested in eliminating the BSP than in defeating the BJP. It is because of this attitude of the Congress that the BJP has been winning elections and staying in power for so long in MP and Gujarat. What is it if not arrogance that despite being out of power for 15 years, they are not willing to give more than 20 seats to the BSP out of 230 in MP and not more than 5-6 seats in Rajasthan,” she said.
Mayawati said that that her’s was the only party with the ability to transfer its vote to the other parties. Still, she said, the Congress is adamantly forcing her to go it alone.
The BSP chief said, “In alliances, the BSP suffers more than the other parties. The BSP is the only party with a transferable vote. But we are now forced to believe that the Congress is conspiring to finish our party in the garb of destroying the BJP. Bur we are the stone that changes the course of the river.”
She continued, “We are the party that struggles for the rights of the poor and the next election will prove that we are capable of defeating the BJP.”
“We do not want to fight any election with the Congress. We will have no alliance with the Congress,” she said.
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