BSP not to participate in Lalu’s anti-BJP rally
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Thursday said that though her party promotes unity among secular parties, it will not take part in RJD president Lalu Prasad’s Patna rally against BJP on Sunday. “BSP has clearly told the RJD that it will share the dais with any regional or national party only when it is decided beforehand on how many seats will go to which party in the secular alliance. Before finalising any secular programme the policy and principle of seat sharing should be decided first as the durability of an alliance is dependent on it and all should get respectable number of seats,” she said.
Despite the grim flood situation in the state, undeterred RJD chief is crisscrossing Bihar to mobilise people for the August 27 rally, which he has claimed would be a major occasion to bring together the secular forces on one platform against the BJP ahead of the 2019 polls. Yadav is attempting a major show of strength after he was ousted from the Bihar government with the JD(U) moving out of the grand alliance and joining back the NDA fold and the government with the BJP.
“If the issue of seat sharing is decided beforehand, it will save the mutual distrust at the last minute as also the trust of the people will be kept intact and then it will not be difficult to defeat the BJP,” she said.
The BSP president added that her party has always supported unity among secular parties and has also taken steps against “the BJP and company, RSS and their communal and casteist mentality”.
“BSP's concern is that there should be no distrust among the people and there is no tiff between the secular parties on the issue of seat sharing even if this rally turns out to be a success. There are incidents of back stabbing in the past and it must be ensure that eventually the BJP does not gain from it,” she said.
“BSP is not against the joint struggle or alliance between secular parties but all this need to be carried out with good intentions and full honesty. The experience of last Assembly election in Bihar proved how some parties had parted ways at the last time over seat sharing,” she said.
Under such circumstances, she said, opposition parties need to chalk out concrete strategy to defeat the BJP.