BSP will not go with BJP to form govt in UP, it’s ‘200 per cent final’
Lucknow, Sep 13 (PTI):
Senior BSP leader Satish Chandra Misra on Monday ruled out 200 per cent any post-poll alliance with the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, asserting that his party would form a government with a clear-cut majority. The Bahujan Samaj Party would also not tie up with any other party, the close confidant of party supremo Mayawati told PTI in an interview.
We will neither form an alliance with any other party nor take support. We would prefer to sit in the opposition, the BSP general secretary said. The BSP is forming its government in 2022 with a full majority. In case of any other scenario arising after the elections, we will never go with the BJP and this is 200 per cent final, he said.
Misra’s assertion came amid a growing perception that the BSP could again join hands with the saffron party if the 2022 assembly elections throw a hung House The BSP has in the past formed governments in the country’s most populous state both with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party. In 1993, it tied up with the SP, whose Mulayam Singh Yadav-headed the government. In 1995, it pulled out and Mayawati became CM with the BJP’s support for a few months. In 1997 and in 2002, the BSP again formed the government in coalition with the BJP.
In 2007, relying on a Dalit-Brahmin combination, the party formed the government on its own, winning 206 seats in the 403-member assembly.
The BSP is once again trying to revive this winning Dalit-Brahmin combination, holding a series of `Brahmin sammelans’ across the state. Dalits constitute an estimated 20 percent of the population of Uttar Pradesh and the Brahmins are said to form 13 per cent.
