BHOPAL: Congress-BSP alliance before the assembly elections seems to have hit a wall with former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati claiming on Tuesday that any coalition before polls in Madhya Pradesh , Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh would be possible only if her party is offered a “respectable number of seats”. Last week too, she put the Congress in a constricted position after she asked for a package-deal alliance for all three states.

BSP supremo Mayawati on Tuesday made it clear in New Delhi that alliance with the Congress would mean that her party gets a “respectable” deal. Mayawati’s statement came when state Congress president Kamal Nath was also in the capital holding talks with central leaders on poll strategy.

Sources in the state Congress said that in Madhya Pradesh, the BSP was asking for 30 out of 230 seats while the party has only four MLAs in the present state assembly. BSP’s sitting legislators are Balbeer Singh Dandotia from Dimni, Satya Prakash Shakwar from Ambah assembly seats in Morena, Usha Chaudhary from Raigaon in Satna and Shiela Tyagi from Mangawan in Rewa district.

In 2013, BSP received 6.29% of the votes polled. The three districts where it got its candidates elected are those in the northern part of the state adjoining Uttar Pradesh. Congress sources also said that the real challenge for PCC chief Kamal Nath is not the BSP, rather it is within his party where tickets aspirants would not want to leave that many seats for Mayawati’s party.

State Congress media committee chairman Manak Agarwal claimed that the alliance will definitely get finalised and the BSP supremo’s statements on package-deal and seat sharing are only the “negotiation” process. BSP wants to contest seats mainly in the Gwalior , Chambal, Bundelkhand and Vindhya areas of the state. This is also the region from where Congress stalwarts like the leader of Opposition Ajay Singh, former ministers Dr Govind Singh, KP Singh and Gurh MLA Sundarlal Tiwari have their fiefdom.

“The path of negotiation for the alliance is open and any such electoral agreement happens through communication and dialogue. AICC president Rahul Gandhi and central leadership are in constant dialogue with the BSP supremo. We have full faith that the alliance will be decided and all like-minded parties will come together with the Congress in Madhya Pradesh so the anti-BJP votes do not get fragmented,” Agarwal said.

PCC spokesman Ravi Saxena said, “PCC chief Kamal Nath has met BSP supremo Mayawati and talks are on. What she has said is only part of the negotiation process. Leaders of the Congress party are working on the seat-sharing equation with the BSP. AICC president after the CWC meeting has confirmed that alliance with like-minded political parties is being worked out. We are sure the alliance will be finalised.”

