Former U.P. Chief Minister shuts door on ties with SP

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will revert to its old strategy of contesting in elections on its own after its alliance with the Samajwadi Party failed to stop the BJP from winning in Uttar Pradesh in the second consecutive general election.

BSP chief Mayawati said on Monday that her party would contest in all major and minor elections on its own in the “interest of the party and the movement.”

Her declaration has shut the door on the possibility of renewal of the alliance with the SP.

Earlier this month, the alliance was put on hold after Ms. Mayawati announced that the BSP would contest all 11 seats on its own in the Assembly byelection. The BSP chief cited “political compulsions” for the decision and said the Yadavs had deserted the SP and hurt the prospects of the alliance. However, she kept the chances of a reunion in future alive with the ultimatum that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav train his cadre to be “missionary”, like BSP workers, and said, “there is no break-up of the alliance yet.”

However, on Monday, in a series of tweets, Ms. Mayawati targeted the SP and reverted to her old criticism of the governments run by the party.

Ms. Mayawati said she had forgotten the old unresolved complaints and hassles and set aside the “anti-BSP and anti-Dalit decisions” of the SP government, including the measures against reservation in promotion and the deterioration of the law and order situation, and followed the “Gathbandhan dharma” in the public and national interest.

But the SP’s “behaviour” after the general election compelled the BSP to wonder whether it would be possible to defeat the BJP in future, she said. “It is not possible,” asserted Ms. Mayawati, a former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Her announcement came a day after the BSP held a meeting in Lucknow, at which Ms. Mayawati tightened her family’s grip on the party. She appointed her younger brother Anand Kumar as vice-president and his son Aakash Anand as a national coordinator, going against her stand against dynastic politics.

Ms. Mayawati told party workers that they should focus on strengthening the organisation and increasing the mass base through bhaichara, a reference to a coalition of disparate castes. In 2007, Ms. Mayawati’s victory in Uttar Pradesh was attributed to this social engineering.