Cannot ally with BSP until Mayawati distances herself from the BJP, says SP leader Shivpal Yadav
The Mayawati-led party is not a member of the Opposition INDIA bloc.
Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav on Sunday said that there can be no alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party until its leader, Mayawati, “distances herself from the Bharatiya Janata Party,” The Times of India reported.
Yadav made the statement while meeting Samajwadi Party workers in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar ahead of the Opposition INDIA bloc meeting on Tuesday. While Samajwadi Party is a member of the INDIA bloc, the Mayawati-led party is not.
Yadav said that despite the BJP’s win in the recent Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, “the INDIA bloc will unitedly accomplish the task of removing the BJP from the country in 2024”.
On December 9, the Bahujan Samaj Party suspended its Lok Sabha MP Danish Ali for alleged anti-party activities. Ali had been called for action against BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri, who used communal slurs against him inside Parliament in September.
Ali had also supported Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who was expelled from the Lok Sabha after allegations that she took bribes in exchange for asking questions in Parliament. Trinamool Congress is a member of the Opposition alliance.
In August, Mayawati announced that her party will fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections alone. She described the INDIA bloc and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance as “anti-poor, casteist, communal and capitalist”.
The Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in an alliance. While the Bahujan Samaj Party had won 10 seats of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party had bagged five.
On distribution of seats among the Opposition alliance members for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Yadav said on Sunday that there is still time for a decision to be made and talks will be held on several issues, including a potential prime minister candidate of the bloc.
“We’ve several capable leaders who could assume the role [of the prime ministerial candidate],” the newspaper quoted Yadav as saying. “A decision on this will be made later”.
