BSP to fight UP, Uttarakhand polls alone, announces Mayawati

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Sunday said her party will fight the assembly elections alone in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and dismissed reports of a tie-up with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) as "completely false, misleading and baseless." In a series of tweets, the BSP chief also stated that her party has only announced a political tie-up with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for the Punjab assembly elections to be held next year.

"This news is being broadcast in news channels since yesterday that the AIMIM and BSP will fight the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh together. This news is completely false, misleading and baseless. There is not even an iota of truth in this and the BSP vehemently denies it," Mayawati tweeted in Hindi.

"It is again clarified, in this regard, that except Punjab, the BSP will not contest the UP and Uttarakhand state polls early next year in alliance with any party which means it will fight on its own," she said in another post.

Mayawati’s clarification comes amid reports of BSP, the Suheldeo Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) led by former UP minister Om Prakash Rajbhar and AIMIM coming together under the umbrella of Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha to contest the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections scheduled next year.

The BSP and the SAD have joined hands after a gap of 25 years. In its alliance with the SAD, the BSP will contest eight out of its allotted 20 seats in Doaba or Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr and Kapurthala districts, which has 23 assembly seats.

She earlier asserted that her party is getting only the right leaders to join the BSP. "The local level leaders of the BSP have been continuously making only the right people of other parties, including the SP, join after investigation, this is well known,” she said.

The BSP has been facing a crisis situation months ahead of polls after the party expelled state legislature party leader Lalji Verma and former state party president Ramachal Rajbhar for anti-party activities.