Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati on Monday announced that her party will contest Assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry alone, PTI reported. Mayawati said her party had “bitter experiences” of forming alliance with other political outfits.

“The experience of our party forging an alliance with others has not been good,” the BSP chief was quoted as saying by the news agency. “Our party leaders, workers and voters are highly disciplined. This is not the case with other parties of the country. In an alliance, our votes are transferred to the other party, but the votes of the other party are not transferred to us.”

Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu will go to polls in a single phase on April 6. The West Bengal elections will be held in eight phases. The results will be announced on May 2.


Also read: Will Mayawati support the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections?


Mayawati added that her party has taken forward the work done by its founder Kanshi Ram to ensure that religious minorities and backward classes lead a life of dignity, ANI reported.

“The BSP is working hard to prepare them,” Mayawati said. “In every meeting and public rally, they are told about Kanshi Ram and Baba Saheb Ambedkar, that as long as there are casteist and capitalist government at the Centre and state, there won’t be proper changes in the economic and social status of these people.”

Mayawati also declared that her party will go solo for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. “The BSP will will contest on all the 403 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, and will perform well,” she said. “The performance of the party will be good in the panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh.”

On the other hand, the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party had in December announced its plan to tie-up with smaller parties for the Uttar Pradesh elections. Yadav said that his experience of forming alliances with the major parties was not good.

The Samajwadi Party had formed an alliance with the Congress for the Assembly polls in 2017. The BJP had won the UP elections with 312 constituencies, while the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance won only 54 seats. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party won 19.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had also announced in December that the Aam Aadmi Party will contest the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.