‘BJP will be whitewashed, SP-BSP will win all seats in UP,’ says Tejashwi Yadav after meet with Mayawati

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Updated: Jan 14, 2019 10:44 IST

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav met Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati in Lucknow on Sunday to congratulate her on stitching an alliance with the Samajwadi Party for the coming Lok Sabha elections. He is likely to meet SP chief Akhilesh Yadav later.

Tejashwi met Mayawati at her residence on Sunday night and discussed the present political situation in the country.

“Laluji wanted grand alliance in Uttar Pradesh and Mayawatiji and Akhilesh Yadav to contest election together,” he told reporters outside Lucknow airport before his meeting with the BSP chief.

After meeting with Mayawati, Tejashwi Yadav also claimed that the BJP will be whitewashed in UP and Bihar

“There’s atmosphere today where they want to scrap Baba Saheb’s constitution and implement ‘Nagpur laws’. People have welcomed step taken by Mayawati ji and Akhilesh ji. The BJP will be whitewashed in UP and Bihar. They won’t win even 1 seat in UP, SP-BSP alliance will win all seats,” said Tejashwi Yadav.

Tejashwi, who is Bihar’s leader of opposition, also alleged that his father and RJD chief Lalu Yadav was behind bars because he did not “surrender” before PM Narendra Modi.

Read | Congress to contest all 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh in 2019 Lok Saha polls

At the same time, he said: “I don’t have any grudge against Modi ji. It is a fight for ideology.”

He also alleged that there was undeclared emergency in the country and efforts were being made to abolish reservation system.

“Cases were filed against me when I was just 14-15 year old and did not even have moustaches. My uncle Nitish Kumar ( Bihar CM) was also behind lodging of these cases,” he said.

Soon after the formal announcement of the BSP-SP alliance on Saturday, Tejashwi had welcomed the new combination calling it a formidable alliance, which would pave the way for complete rout of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh where the saffron party is in power.

Out of total 80 seats, the BJP had won 71 while its ally Apna Dal bagged two seats in the 2014 parliamentary election.

Referring to the SP-BSP alliance, Tejashwi had underlined that the alliance was first envisaged by his father, after the regional parties in Bihar and UP had suffered electoral setback in 2014 polls due to various factors including PM Narendra Modi’s soaring popularity in the Hindi hinterland.

Also Read | SP-BSP poll alliance: RLD likely to wait and watch before making any move

According to sources, the RJD chief, jailed in Ranchi after being convicted in fodder scam cases but currently undergoing treatment at RIMS, Ranchi, is happy with the SP-BSP alliance.

Both Lalu and Tejashwi feel it would bolster the party’s traditional vote bank among backward classes and minorities in both UP and Bihar and help in fighting the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is banking heavily on religious polarisation, the sources added.

The RJD’s first family shares familial ties with the Samajwadi Party’s first family. RJD chief’s youngest daughter Raj Lakhsmi is married to Mulayam’s grandnephew Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, who is a Samajwadi Party MP from Mainpuri constituency.