Ending months-long speculation of whether the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will join hands with the INDIA alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, party chief Mayawati said that she will fight the polls “solo”.
Addressing the media on Monday, Mayawati said, “I want to clarify that our party (BSP) will go solo in the upcoming (2024) Lok Sabha polls.”
“With the backing of people from backward community, Dalits, tribals and Muslims, we had formed a full majority government in UP in 2007, and that’s why we have decided to contest the Lok Sabha polls alone. We will maintain a distance with those who are casteist and believe in communalism, and we will not join any alliance,” she said, PTI reported.
“Fighting elections while being in an alliance has hurt us more than it had benefitted us…that is why it is better we fight elections alone,” Mayawati said.
However, she said that the post-poll alliance option is open. “BSP will not go in alliance with anyone but the option is open for post-poll alliance,” she said.
Further clearing the air around the issue of her retirement from politics, she said, “Last month, I declared Akash Anand as my political successor following which it was being speculated in media that I may soon retire from politics. However, I want to clarify that it’s not the case, and I will continue to work towards strengthening the party.”