"BJP's Plan Won't Succeed": Mayawati Says Samajwadi Party-BSP Ties Intact

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati today hit out at the BJP claiming that the ruling party was desperate to defeat her party's candidate to drive a wedge between BSP and the Samajwadi Party that, she underlined, had been giving the BJP leaders "sleepless nights". But they won't succeed, she declared.

"The BJP must be thinking that Mayawati is hot-headed and will break the alliance, but at no cost will I let the BJP's plan succeed," she said.

Mayawati was outmanoeuvred by the BJPin the race for the Rajya Sabha in Uttar Pradesh just days after she helped the Samajwadi Party (SP) snatch two parliamentary seats from the ruling party in bypolls. Businessman Anil Aggarwal, backed by the BJP, beat the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)'s Bhim Rao Ambedkar in a thriller that pitted Mayawati against the formidable strategic skills of BJP chief Amit Shah, who not just worked on sulking allies but also ensured that his party lawmakers went through several rounds of practice voting.

BSP lawmaker, who had voted in favour of the BJP yesterday, was suspended by Mayawati, who accused the ruling BJP of "misusing government machinery".

"Like always, PM Modi and Yogi Adityanath have misused government machinery and perpetrated government terror and fear and got a dhanna-set (rich man) elected." She also claimed that many lawmakers voted in the BJP's favour "out of fear of prosecution by the investigative agencies".

The charges were promptly rejected by the BJP. "There was transparency in these elections. This 'Babua-Bua' (Samajwadi Party-BSP) alliance is an opportunistic one," said BJP leader Sidharth Nath Singh.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav was quick to give thumbs up to Mayawati's declaration of unity. "After BJP's conspiracy in Rajya Sabha elections against the election of a Dalit candidate, SP-BSP partnership has become stronger for elections ahead," he tweeted.

However, Mayawati did make the point that Akhilesh Yadav could have done better but suggested she was willing to overlook the gaps due to his relative inexperience. For one, she said, the BSP candidate might even have won if Akhilesh Yadav had invested in consolidating the SP votes rather than Raja Bhaiya, the independent lawmaker she had jailed 16 years ago on terror charges.

Mayawati had the Samajwadi Party's surplus votes as part of an arrangement in which the bitter rivals had teamed up to defeat the BJP in two strongholds earlier this month. The Congress contributed seven votes. Akhilesh Yadav kept up his end of the bargain but it was not enough.