A DAY after her party failed to open its account in the Lok Sabha elections in its worst-ever performance, BSP chief Mayawati Saturday said her party suffered in the elections for supporting the UPA government at the Centre as the people were angry at “the policies and failures” of the Congress-led coalition.

“The unexpected success of BJP in the Lok Sabha elections undoubtedly shows that the people of the country were against wrong policies and failures of the UPA government. Our party and many other parties which had supported it to keep the communal forces away from power, suffered in the elections because of this,” she said talking to reporters at her residence.

She claimed “communal polarisation” in UP made most of the Muslims side with the SP and most of the upper castes and OBCs with the BJP.

Mayawati said her party holds Congress, BJP and SP responsible for BSP’s poor performance as these parties “conspired” and used various “tricks” to rout the BSP.

She said just before the polling was to take place in western UP, BJP’s UP in-charge Amit Shah delivered a “provocative” speech and gave a Hindu-Muslim colour to the elections. “OBC and upper caste voters who were with the BSP, got affected by this wind(of polarisation) and most of them went with the BJP,” she said.

She said she had told that Modi does not belong to a backward caste, still most of the people from backward castes got swayed in favour of the BJP.

Mayawati said the Congress and SP also “misled” the Muslims in western UP by telling them that the Dalits were going to vote for the BJP as they are Hindus and this led to the Muslim votes getting divided, which benefited maximum to the SP and also the BJP. “Now Muslims will regret this. This is common about Muslims that first they get misled and then regret,” she said.

Mayawati did not find any faults in her party’s strategy or campaign and said her core support base of Dalits was intact and has voted for the BSP.

She claimed the BJP-led NDA had come to power invoking caste, religion and using conceit and wrong speeches. She said people will soon regret choosing this government. However, she said Modi deserves to be congratulated for bringing BJP a majority.

She said the BJP may have got 71 seats in UP but it received only 42 per cent votes and this proves that 58 per cent voters in UP rejected it.

Mayawati said the Congress managed to win Rae Bareli and Amethi as the SP did not field candidates there and the SP won five seats as Congress either did not field candidates or chose weak candidates for these seats.

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