BHOPAL: Breaking his silence over proposed alliance and seat-sharing arrangement between the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ahead of assembly elections in the state, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said no grand alliance would be able to affect BJP. Those, who had formed an alliance with the Congress in the past, were ruined.

“Congress is an untrustworthy party and I really do not care about grand alliance against the BJP. For those who had formed alliance with the Congress in the past, the outcome was disastrous. I am not concerned about the Congress, but for those who ally with the Congress. Their destruction is inevitable,” said Chouhan before launching the second phase of ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra in Maihar, on Wednesday.

The chief minister was replying to a query on BJP’s strategy in view of a possible seat arrangement between the main Opposition Congress and the BSP during assembly polls. Chouhan said all alliances in the past proved disastrous and he was focusing only on development seeking public blessings to form a government again.

“Whether it was V P Singh's government or Chandrashekhar or Morarji Desai ’s government at the Centre, grand alliance was never successful. Congress had pulled down the Chaudhary Charan Singh government in four months and humiliated him. Former PMs, H D Dewe Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujaral also met the same fate. And now, H D Kumaraswamy in Karnataka wept saying that he was swallowing poison in the coalition government. This is the fate of Congress ally,” said Chouhan.

The chief minister stated, “I am concerned about those who invite problem and ruination by going for an alliance with the Congress. On my part, I began first phase of yatra with the blessings of Mahakaal temple in Ujjain . In the second phase, I am seeking public support with the blessings of Ma Sharda.”

With the Congress and BSP inching close for an alliance for the forthcoming polls, a pooling of two parties’ votes polled in the 2013 assembly election shows the BJP tally would have reduced by 41 seats if the Congress and BSP had come together. The BSP holds a clear sway in 14 districts of Vindhya, Gwalior-Chambal and Bundelkhand regions.

In 2013, the BSP contested 227 of the 230 seats in the state and won four with a vote share of 6.42%. Incidentally, the difference in vote share between the BJP and Congress was 8.4%. The BJP had won 165 seats while the Congress secured 58. Interestingly, the BSP had gathered more than 30,000 votes in 17 seats and more than 10,000 votes in 62 seats during the polls.

Chouhan said no alliance would create an impact and that his approach to people is based on his works and welfare schemes launched for the benefit of poor and needy in the state.

