BSP chief’s latest remark is likely to dent Lalu’s efforts to forge a grand alliance against BJP
Ahead of the mega opposition rally in Patna on Sunday, BSP supremo Mayawati has sprung a surprise by saying that there is no point sharing the dais with other parties without a seat-sharing agreement.
RJD chief Lalu Yadav had told ThePrint that both Mayawati and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav would attend the ‘BJP Bhagao, Desh Bachao Rally’ on 27 August.
However, Mayawati’s rider raises a question mark over the prospects of opposition unity. She also took a jibe at SP for walking away from the grand alliance in Bihar just before the 2015 assembly elections.
Sources said that Mayawati had urged Congress president Sonia Gandhi to ensure a “fair deal” for her in Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In the recent assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, BSP won only 19 seats, much below the SP’s seat tally of 47.
But the BSP’s 22.2 per cent vote share is marginally higher than SP’s (21.8 per cent). Keeping this in view, Mayawati has sought an equal division of seats between BSP and SP while leaving fewer seats for Congress and Rashtriya Lok Dal.
On 20 August, there was a tweet doing the rounds, with pictures of Mayawati, Akhilesh and other opposition leaders calling for a joint opposition to take on the BJP. The very next day, the BSP denied sending any tweet and said it was not its official Twitter handle. Later, the account was also blocked.
Mayawati’s latest remark will clearly dent Lalu’s efforts to forge a grand alliance of opposition parties. Sources in the SP said that they were ready to go ahead with a seat-sharing agreement without any precondition. “A grand opposition unity will help all opposition parties. But such demands only indicate that they (BSP) are looking for a reason to move out of it,” one source said.
However, Mayawati still maintains that she is willing to be part of the opposition alliance provided she gets a decent number of seats.
So far, BSP had been participating in all the opposition meetings to arrive at a common agenda before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Earlier on Wednesday, Lalu Yadav had called Mayawati and she had assured him that senior BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra would attend the rally in Patna.
Sonia and Rahul Gandhi have already communicated that they would not attend the rally. Instead, senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad will go to Patna.
As of now, SP’s Akhilesh Yadav, TMC leader and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Left parties and a few other regional parties have confirmed their participation in the rally.