End of Mahagathbandhan: Miffed at Akhilesh, Mayawati to go it alone

Lucknow: In a string of tweets, Bahujan Samaj Party’s chief Mayawati on Monday said that the BSP would fight all elections, big and small, on its own.

On Sunday, attacking Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav at a party meeting, Mayawati said that Yadav had neither visited nor talked to her over phone ever since the Lok Sabha election results were announced.

Mayawati said: “After the mahagathbandhan lost the elections, I received no call from Akhilesh. BSP general secretary Satish Mishra asked him to speak to me, but he just wouldn't listen. But because I am senior to him, I called him up instead and expressed sadness over his family members losing.”

Despite expectations that the BSP-SP alliance would pose a threat to BJP in Uttar Pradesh, it only managed to get just 15 seats. As soon as the results were announced, the drift in the alliance could be seen clearly.

A BSP leader present at the meeting said, “Behenji [Mayawati] told party leaders that Akhilesh had an important say in seat-sharing between the alliance partners and played a pivotal role in the selection of candidates. She said Akhilesh asked her to field minimum Muslim candidates as it might lead to polarisation during election. Terming it a bad advice, she said it proved to be an important factor in the defeat of the alliance.”

She also accused Akhilesh Yadav of discriminating against the Muslim community at the meeting.

Ten days after the general election results emerged, Mayawati announced that the BSP would contest the forthcoming assembly bypolls alone. She had earlier said her party’s decision to contest the upcoming bypolls to 12 assembly seats did not mean a permanent break-up between BSP and SP.