BSP vice-president says no pact, her party will go it alone in UP Assembly poll

BSP vice-president says no pact, her party will go it alone in UP Assembly poll
R B Singh

LUCKNOW, DECEMBER 30: BSP vice-president Mayawati has scotched rumours of her party's alliance with the BJP and made it clear that her party would go it alone in the Assembly elections in UP likely to be held in March-April along with those in Bihar, Orissa and Haryana.

Mayawati told mediapersons here today that her party would make all-out efforts for an absolute majority and it did not seem very difficult as the situation in the state was ``favourable''. The BSP leader, who has held several meetings of party office-bearers in the last five days, said she had advised partymen to gear up for the elections.

Mayawati said the BJP wanted a poll pact with her party as it feared a further erosion of its support base. However, her party, she added, was against it because such an alliance would not serve the interests of the Bahujan Samaj.

Denying that former chief minister Kalyan Singh was expelled from the BJP as it was her pre-condition for the alliance, the BSP leader said Kalyan Singh was expelled for anti-party activities. She, however, confirmed that some BJP MPs had met her after Kalyan's expulsion and suggested a pact.

Mayawati said that to have a tie-up, it was necessary that both parties were like-minded, which was not the case with the BJP. ``When under a pact Kalyan Singh was made the chief minister, he reversed all my decisions,'' she said, adding that at that time she had lodged her protest with the BJP high command. No one cared, she added.

The BSP leader said the BJP could not make inroads into her party's votebank by merely appointing a Scheduled Caste Governor or giving senior posts to Scheduled Caste officers.