New Delhi: Two days after the Bahujan Samaj Party registered its lowest ever tally of only one seat in the current Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, BSP party chief Mayawati claimed that the decision by Muslims to throw their lot behind the Samajwadi Party (SP) resulted in Dalits, upper-caste Hindus and OBCs backing the BJP to keep out the SP.
Speaking for the first time since Thursday’s results, Mayawati said, “To defeat the BJP, Muslims shifted their votes from the tried and tested BSP to the SP. This wrong decision of theirs cost us heavily because the fear spread among BSP supporters, the upper-caste Hindus and OBCs that if the SP comes to power, there will be jungle raj once again. So they went to the BJP… This is a harsh lesson for us… that we trusted them… We will keep this experience in mind and change accordingly.”
Insisting that Dalits, especially those from her Jatav community, “stayed like a rock” with the BSP, she said, “If the Muslim votes had got together with the Dalits, we could have repeated what happened in West Bengal, when the Trinamool defeated the BJP. Also, they forget the fact at the key moment — that only the BSP could have stopped the BJP from coming to power in UP… If there had been a three-way battle, as was expected, the BSP would have had very different results.”
Media’s Aggressive Propaganda Hurting BSP’s Reputation: Mayawati
BSP chief thereby also pointed out how media’s attitude played a vital role as it hurt the reputation of the party thereby lessening the chances for them to win the elections.
“The work done by the media during the UP assembly elections to harm the Ambedkarite BSP movement by adopting casteist hatred and hateful attitude in the direction of their bosses is not hidden from anyone,” Mayawati said on Twitter.
On Friday, Mayawati had said it was the media’s aggressive propaganda showing the BSP as the “B team of the BJP” that drove away Muslims and anti-BJP voters from it.
The 66-year-old leader said that UP election results were opposite to the expectations of the BSP.
“UP election results are opposed to BSP’s expectations. We should not be discouraged by it. Instead, we should learn from it, introspect and carry forward our party movement, and come back to power,” she said.
The BJP has retained power in Uttar Pradesh by winning 255 out of 403 constituencies, securing a 41.29 per cent vote share.
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