Lucknow | According to party leaders, BSP Chief Mayawati has blamed Akhilesh Yadav as one of the reasons for the Lok Sabha defeat at her party’s national executive meeting.
Three weeks after she called off the alliance with the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati has called Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav as ‘anti-Muslim’.
A BSP leader said that Mayawati told members in the meeting that Akhilesh Yadav had neither called her nor visited her after Lok Sabha results, which came out a month ago, on May 23. He also did not return any of her own calls, she said.
The Lok Sabha poll count saw a massive loss to the Mahagathbandan, who were assured of a much larger share of votes and seats.
“Behenji [Mayawati] told party leaders that Akhilesh had an important say in seat-sharing between the alliance partners and played a pivotal role in the selection of candidates. She said Akhilesh asked her to field minimum Muslim candidates as it might lead to polarisation during election. Terming it a bad advice, she said it proved to be an important factor in the defeat of the alliance,” the leader said, as quoted by HindustanTimes.
Mayawati claimed that Akhilesh had asked her to not give tickets to Muslims as it would result in religious polarization.
“But I did not listen to him. When Akhilesh Yadav was the Chief Minister, injustice was done to non-Yadav and Dalits and that is why they did not give votes to the SP. The SP had protested against the promotion of the Dalits also,” she allegedly said.
Mayawati also alleged that the SP workers and leaders betrayed her on a number of seats and worked to defeat the BSP instead. She had informed the SP Chief of regarding this, however, he did not carry out any action.
A few weeks ago, BSP Chief Mayawati had declared that her party would fight the by-polls alone, triggering rumours that their alliance has come to an end. Mayawati clarified that the decision was simply for the by-polls and that her “doors are open” for any future alliance.
BSP managed to win 10 seats and SP got 5 seats in Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha.
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