Mayawati ends alliance with SP, slams Akhilesh's behavior after polls
The 2019 Lok Sabha elections will be remembered for unprecedented allies, and the one which topped the list was the friendship between Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP). For years, SP and BSP remained adversaries but joined hands to defeat BJP. After they failed to do so, BSP Chief Mayawati has now pulled the plug on the alliance, but not before slamming Akhilesh Yadav. Shortest friendship ever?
For decades, SP and BSP juggled powers in UP. When one ruled the state, the other one sat in Opposition. So, when Akhilesh and Mayawati forged an alliance, it confirmed that politics is about uncertainty. Out of 80 Lok Sabha seats, BSP fielded candidates from 38 seats, SP from 37. Their ally RLD was given three seats, and two seats were "left" for Congress.
What happened next was something Indian politics hadn't seen before. Mayawati and Akhilesh shared stage, sought votes for mahagathbandhan candidates, and praised one another. At one rally, Mayawati heaped praises at Akhilesh's father and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav too.
But the merriment didn't last long. After the loss in general elections (only 15 candidates of mahagathbandhan won), Mayawati returned to her script. A high-level meeting of BSP was convened in Lucknow on Sunday, where it was decided that party would contest all polls solo. Notably, 11 assembly seats of UP are going into elections after their legislators were elected to the Parliament.
Mayawati also slammed Akhilesh for the manner in which the state was governed between 2012 and 2017. She slammed SP for "works carried out that were against reservation in promotion and deteriorating law and order situation". In yet another tweet, she said all this was forgotten for the alliance but after polls SP's behavior changed, prompting her to take this decision.
परन्तु लोकसभा आमचुनाव के बाद सपा का व्यवहार बीएसपी को यह सोचने पर मजबूर करता है कि क्या ऐसा करके बीजेपी को आगे हरा पाना संभव होगा? जो संभव नहीं है। अतः पार्टी व मूवमेन्ट के हित में अब बीएसपी आगे होने वाले सभी छोटे-बड़े चुनाव अकेले अपने बूते पर ही लड़ेगी।
— Mayawati (@Mayawati) June 24, 2019
A leader who attended BSP's meeting said Mayawati was upset as Akhilesh didn't call after the poll defeat. On the other hand, Mayawati rang him up to express "sympathy" on the losses of his wife Dimple Yadav and cousin Dharmendra Yadav. In fact, on June 3 when Mayawati spoke about fighting polls alone, Akhilesh didn't call her. Instead, he called General Secretary Satish Mishra.
"She said Akhilesh asked her to field minimum Muslim candidates as it might lead to polarization during an election. Terming it bad advice, she said it proved to be an important factor in the defeat of the alliance," a source said.
Some BSP leaders opine that alliance with SP made Dalits, the core vote bank of the party, furious. Had there been no alliance, BSP would have won more seats. But the numbers show BSP benefited from the alliance, winning 10 seats, as opposed to winning none in 2014 elections. As much as Mayawati would have us believe, she isn't the victim here.
