Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has announced her party would contest all future elections alone—a message firmly puts an end to the alliance with Samajwadi Party after weeks of uncertainty.
The announcement comes a day after the BSP supremo held a meeting with party workers to review her outfit's showing in the recent Lok Sabha polls.
"Everyone is aware that forgetting everything of the past as also the anti-BSP and anti-Dalit decisions like reservation in promotions and bad law and order during the SP rule in 2012-2017, BSP adhered to the 'gatbandhan dharma' with the Samajwadi Party in the interest of the country," she tweeted in Hindi.
"But SP's behaviour after the elections has forced the BSP to think, will it be possible to defeat the BJP in future, which is not possible," she said.
"Therefore, in the interest of the party and movement, the party will contest all small and big elections on its own strength," Mayawati said in a series of tweets.
The BSP entered into an electoral alliance with Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) and Chaudhary Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha polls. The alliance, however, failed to make an impact in the politically crucial state.
In a recent speech that came three weeks after she announced that her party would fight by elections to Uttar Pradesh assembly seats alone—a significant development given that the BSP does not usually contest by elections—Mayawati launched a tirade against SP president Akhilesh Yadav by calling him 'anti-Muslim.
Mayawati said that Akhilesh Yadav had asked her to not give tickets to Muslims as it would result in religious polarisation.
"But I did not listen to him. When Akhilesh Yadav was the chief minister, injustice was done to non-Yadav and Dalits and that is why they did not give votes to the SP. The SP had protested against the promotion of the Dalits also," she said at a closed door party meeting.
Mayawati's statements, incidentally, were not a part of the official press release issued at the end of the meeting but sources later confirmed what she had said.
Incidentally, three of the five MPs elected on a SP ticket are Muslims, namely, Mohd Azam Khan, Shafiqur-rehman Barq and ST Hasan.
Mayawati also attacked the Yadav family and accused Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav of "working hand in glove with the BJP" to frame her in Taj corridor case.
The BSP president did not spare Akhilesh and said that she had called him on the counting day but he did not answer her calls.
"He should have told me where my party workers did not support him," she said.
She further said that Akhilesh Yadav called BSP leader Satish Chandra Misra after the party announced its decision to go solo in the Assembly by-elections but did not speak with her.
Attacking the SP further, Mayawati said that the SP members have been crediting themselves on BSP's win on 10 seats but the truth, she said, is if the SP has been able to bag even five seats, it was because of the BSP support.
Mayawati also alleged that the SP workers and leaders betrayed her on a number of seats and worked to defeat the BSP instead.
The BSP President said she confronted Akhilesh Yadav with facts on this issue but he did not take any action against the SP members.
Mayawati's diatribe against Akhilesh Yadav makes it clear that the BSP is in no mood to continue any relationship with the SP.
A senior SP leader, while commenting on Mayawati's statements, said: "There is nothing unexpected about her statements. She always uses this kind of language when she falls out with a party or leader. The question is that if she knew all these facts why did she forge the alliance in the first place?"
While the BSP managed to win ten seats, SP got five seats and RLD drew a blank.