Chinks in Opposition Unity as BSP Chief Announces No Alliance With Congress
© AP Photo / Mahesh Kumar A.
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Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, with 80 parliamentary seats, holds the key to power at the national level.
In what is believed to be a huge blow to opposition unity, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader and former Uttar Pradesh state chief Kumari Mayawati on Sunday announced that her party will not fight in next year's general elections and upcoming assembly polls in an alliance with Congress and other parties.
"BSP won't align with any parties in the upcoming elections, we will fight polls on our own. Congress and few other parties are trying to ally with us but our ideology is different from other parties," Mayawati said at a press conference in the state capital Lucknow.
Mayawati's statement about partnering with the Congress or Uttar Pradesh's main opposition party, the Samajwadi Party (SP), comes at a time when the former is trying to set up an umbrella alliance to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 national elections.
Mayawati is a key figure in Uttar Pradesh, having governed the state from 2007 to 2012 after her party won a clear majority in the assembly polls at the time.
Moreover, in the 2019 general polls, members of her party won from 10 parliamentary constituencies, behind only the BJP in the state.
Out of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP and its allies currently hold 66. The remaining 14 are shared by the BSP (10), SP (3), and Congress (1).
Mayawati's party's distancing itself from Congress doesn't appear to augur well for the opposition, as the latter's graph has been rapidly diminishing in the northern Indian state.
Congress has only two lawmakers in Uttar Pradesh's 403-member state assembly, and only one parliamentarian among a total of 80 from the state.
"BSP won't align with any parties in the upcoming elections, we will fight polls on our own. Congress and few other parties are trying to ally with us but our ideology is different from other parties," Mayawati said at a press conference in the state capital Lucknow.
Mayawati's statement about partnering with the Congress or Uttar Pradesh's main opposition party, the Samajwadi Party (SP), comes at a time when the former is trying to set up an umbrella alliance to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 national elections.
Mayawati is a key figure in Uttar Pradesh, having governed the state from 2007 to 2012 after her party won a clear majority in the assembly polls at the time.
Moreover, in the 2019 general polls, members of her party won from 10 parliamentary constituencies, behind only the BJP in the state.
Out of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP and its allies currently hold 66. The remaining 14 are shared by the BSP (10), SP (3), and Congress (1).
Mayawati's party's distancing itself from Congress doesn't appear to augur well for the opposition, as the latter's graph has been rapidly diminishing in the northern Indian state.
Congress has only two lawmakers in Uttar Pradesh's 403-member state assembly, and only one parliamentarian among a total of 80 from the state.
