Tale of 2 Allies Ends? BSP May Go Solo in Assembly Bypolls as SP's Defeat in Family Bastions Irks Maya

Lucknow: Breaking the decades-old tradition of not contesting the bypolls, the Bahujan Samaj Party will now be contesting the bypolls on the assembly seats of the Uttar Pradesh that were vacated after its MLAs got elected to the Lok Sabha. The decision was allegedly taken in the review meeting called by BSP chief in Delhi on Monday. However, it is not yet clear if BSP will contest on all 11 seats or will it share the seats with its alliance partner SP.

Top sources in the BSP claimed that the BSP chief has asked party men to prepare for contesting Assembly by-polls in the state. Sources also claim that Mayawati praised Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav and SP Patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav for their efforts.

The BSP chief, however, allegedly blamed Mulayam Singh’s brother Shivpal for sabotaging elections and transferring the votes of Yadav community to the BJP in at least three parliamentary constituencies.

Meanwhile, SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav who was in his parliamentary constituency Azamgarh on Monday said he had no idea about the decision of BSP contesting the assembly bypolls and said that there can be no alternative to ground work if they want to defeat BJP. “There is only one way to defeat BJP and that is to work on the ground. I have no idea about BSP’s decision, at the moment I am in Azamgarh and meeting my people," he said.

Over a week after the Lok Sabha elections, BSP chief Mayawati had called for an important review meeting in Delhi to take stock of their performance. Sources in BSP claim that the BSP supremo admitted that the vote transfer from the SP side was not expected and perhaps that was the main reason for the defeat of alliance candidates in many seats including the wife of Akhilesh, Dimple Yadav, and his cousin Dharmendra Yadav.

Earlier, the BSP chief had cracked the whip and removed in-charges of six states Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Gujarat, and Rajasthan, while three state presidents of Delhi and Madhya Pradesh have also been removed.

The BSP had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections on 38 seats of Uttar Pradesh in a pre-poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal.

The Samajwadi Party contested on 37 seats while RLD contested on three seats; two seats of Amethi and Raebareli were left for Congress. However, even after the strategic alliance which was considered as a mega road block for the BJP, the BSP managed to win only 10 seats while the Samajwadi Party bagged just five seats.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal could not open its account, while out of two seats of Amethi and Raebarli left for Congress, one seat of Amethi was snatched away by BJP.