Lucknow, Jan 15 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh BJP president Pankaj Choudhary on Thursday termed Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati’s decision to contest upcoming polls alone as an “internal matter” of her organisation.
Responding to Mayawati’s announcement that the BSP would avoid alliances in upcoming elections Choudhary told reporters in Lucknow that it was “her personal and party decision” to decide on alliance.
“Whom to align with and whom not to is their internal matter. It is for them to decide,” he said.
Choudhary was speaking after a meeting of the BJP’s cells and departments held in the state capital earlier in the day. He said the session, attended by coordinators from across the state, focused on ensuring that welfare schemes of the BJP-led government reach the grassroots.
“The emphasis was on taking the government’s schemes to the people and ensuring their effective publicity and implementation,” he added.
Earlier in the day, Mayawati, who turned 70 on Thursday, said at a press conference at the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) headquarters that the party has decided that it was “more appropriate” to fight all small and big elections, including the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, independently and would not enter any kind of alliance with any party.
“There should be no confusion about this. The BSP will contest the next Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh alone,” she said.
She said past experience had shown that alliances benefited BSP’s partners more than the BSP. According to her, the party’s core Dalit vote largely transferred to allies, but upper-caste votes from partners did not fully transfer to BSP candidates.
She, however, added that in the future, if the party became fully convinced that an alliance partner could effectively transfer its votes — particularly of upper castes — to the BSP, a positive decision on contesting elections in alliance could be taken, though she said such a situation would take years to materialise. PTI KIS AKY AKY
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