BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) supremo Mayawati announced on Friday that her party will no longer form alliances with regional forces in Uttar Pradesh or any other state, citing the poor performance of previous partnerships.
This move, she said, is aimed at protecting the morale of her party workers and preserving the BSP's political movement. Mayawati also reiterated her stance of maintaining a distance from both the BJP-led NDA and the Congress-led INDIA alliance.
The decision was made during a review meeting held to analyze the "bitter experiences" from the Haryana Assembly election results and prior Punjab elections. In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), the former four-time Uttar Pradesh chief minister expressed her dissatisfaction with past alliances.
"The BSP had consistently transferred its votes to alliance partners during elections in Uttar Pradesh and other states, but these partners failed to reciprocate. This led to disappointing results, which demoralized our party workers and hurt the party's movement," Mayawati said.
She emphasized the importance of shielding the party cadres from further disappointment, which could potentially damage the party's progress. Referring to the recent Haryana elections, where the BSP had partnered with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) but failed to win any seats, she highlighted how the lack of reciprocation from allies had cost them.
"In light of the Haryana assembly election results and the previous Punjab elections, today's review meeting for Haryana and Punjab has decided that the BSP will no longer form alliances with regional parties. We will also continue to distance ourselves from both the BJP/NDA and the Congress/INDIA alliances, as we have done in the past," Mayawati declared.
She reaffirmed that the BSP remains committed to its core ideology of empowering the Bahujan Samaj (the marginalized sections of society) and upholding Ambedkarite values. She pointed out that, despite efforts by "casteist forces" to weaken the BSP, it remains the only party dedicated to this mission.
"The BSP is not a party that merges with others for selfish reasons. Instead, it is a movement aimed at uniting the various sections of the Bahujan Samaj into a powerful political force, based on mutual cooperation and brotherhood, to elevate them to a ruling class status," she added.
In the Haryana elections, the BSP, in alliance with INLD, failed to win any seats. After the results, Mayawati blamed the "casteist people of the Jat community" for not voting for BSP candidates, despite the party's efforts to transfer its vote base to the alliance partner.
