NEW DELHI: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav engaged in a blame game over the reasons behind the dissolution of their alliance.
While Mayawati claimed that Akhilesh stopped responding to calls from BSP leaders, the SP chief countered that Mayawati kept him uninformed about her decision to end the alliance.
According to a booklet being circulated among BSP workers, Mayawati stated, “In UP, to stop BJP, Akhilesh Yadav, forgetting all the past mistakes of his party, talked of giving them another chance to form an alliance.
But in the result of this election, BSP got 10 seats and SP got 5 because of this maintaining the alliance was a far-away thing but Akhilesh Yadav stopped taking calls from BSP chief and Senior party leaders.”
“Because of this, to preserve the honour of the party, we have to break the alliance with SP,” she added.
The 2019
Lok Sabha polls
saw the BJP and its allies securing 64 out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, while the BSP-SP alliance managed to win only 15 seats. The Congress won a single seat. However, in the 2024 elections, the SP formed an alliance with the Congress, and the combine won 43 Lok Sabha seats in the state, with the BJP winning 33 seats and the BSP failing to secure any.
In the booklet, Mayawati said, “The SP-BSP pact in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls was aimed at checking the BJP from coming to power at the Centre.”
“However, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav was so dejected with the results of the elections in which BSP won 10 seats and the SP five that he stopped taking calls from BSP chief and other senior leaders. Thus a decision was made to sever ties with the SP without compromising one’s self-respect,” the booklet stated.
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav hit back at BSP chief, saying no one had any clue that the alliance was coming apart.
Responding to Mayawati’s allegations, Akhilesh Yadav said during a press conference in Lucknow, “When the alliance was called off, I was addressing a rally in Azamgarh and both SP and BSP cadres were present there. None had a clue that the alliance was coming apart.” He further added, “I had myself dialled (BSP chief) to ask why the alliance was coming unstuck. I needed a response to prepare myself for media queries after the rally.”
The booklet, which was initially distributed among BSP cadre at the party’s national executive meeting in Lucknow on August 27, aims to help the party’s supporters understand its ideology and strategy for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, according to BSP state chief Vishwanath Pal.
