AMN / LUCKNOW
BSP supremo Mayawati has clarified that it was no alliance with Saamjwadi party but merely support for the SP candidates in the forthcoming Lok Sabha bypolls for Gorakhpur and Phulpur scheduled for March 11.
Speaking to a news agency, she said all rumours of a BSP-SP alliance are false and baseless. “As the BSP has not put up candidates in the Lok Sabha byelections, our party workers and voters were asking for a directive. So I have asked them to vote for a party that can defeat the BJP and in this case it is the SP. It is not an alliance but a mere transfer of votes.”
According to the BSP supremo, her party had not entered into an alliance with any party anywhere in the country, except in Karnataka where it has entered into an electoral alliance with H D Dewe Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular).
Hitting out at the media for putting out speculative reports of a SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati said, “If there is ever an alliance we will be the first to announce it to the media and leave no scope for speculation.”
The BSP president said if the SP agreed to send one BSP candidate to the Rajya Sabha she would help SP win in the Vidhan Parishad.
Similarly, if the Congress wanted BSP votes in Madhya Pradesh to send its candidate to the Rajya Sabha it would have to support the BSP for Rajya Sabha in UP, she pointed out.
The BSP has only 19 members in the UP assembly and a minimum of 37 votes are required for Rajya Sabha election that is scheduled later this month. The SP has 47 members and the Congress has seven.