Maya suspends 7 rebel MLAs, says will support BJP but not SP
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Thursday suspended seven legislators who opposed the nomination of her candidate Ramji Gautam for election to the Rajya Sabha, and vowed that BSP MLAs would support any other dispensation, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to ensure the defeat of the Samajwadi Party (SP) in upcoming elections to Uttar Pradesh’s upper house.
She also said her decision to withdraw the case against SP leaders related to the state guesthouse incident of June 2, 1995 was a mistake.
At a virtual press conference in New Delhi, Mayawati said the party suspended the seven MLAs for alleged anti- party activities.
The seven MLAs — Chaudhary
Aslam Ali, Hakim Lal Bind, Mohammad Mujtaba Siddiqui, Aslam Raini, Sushma Patel, Hargovind Bhargava and Bandana Singh —had betrayed the party for the lure of money and election tickets offered by the SP, the BSP supremo alleged. All the seven MLAs have been suspended from the party with immediate effect, she said, adding that party office bearers had been directed not to invite the suspended MLAs to any party programmes.The BSP would also move an application to get the seven rebel MLAs disqualified from the legislative assembly under the anti-defection law, Mayawati said.
The nomination of Gautam to the Rajya Sabha was held valid on Wednesday for the November 9 polls to 10 Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh that are falling vacant although four rebels claimed that their signatures on the nomination form had been forged. The four had met SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, sparking speculation that they may desert the BSP.
“BSP MLAs would vote for the BJP or any other party candidate to ensure the defeat of the SP in the coming legislative council elections,” Maywati said at a digital news conference in
BSP MLAs would vote for the BJP or any other party candidate to ensure the defeat of the SP in the coming legislative council elections
MAYAWATI,
BSP president
New Delhi. The council elections are likely to be held in January next year.
Mayawati said her decision to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in an alliance with the SP was wrong.
“Ignoring the anti-Dalit policy of the SP, I had taken the decision to go for an alliance in haste. To weaken the communal and parochial forces from grabbing power, the BSP went for a pre-poll alliance with the SP in the general election. The BSP mobilised its cadre and resources for the victory of the alliance. Instead of campaigning, the SP chief’s focus was on withdrawal of the infamous June 2, 1995 guest house case. Akhilesh Yadav told BSP national general secretary SC Mishra to convey his message to behanji (Mayawati) to forgive and forget the guest house incident. In the interest of the alliance, the BSP withdrew the case,” she said.
It was a reference to an incident in which armed SP workers surrounded a Lucknow guest house where Mayawati was meeting BSP workers and went on the rampage, forcing her to lock herself in a room.
After declaration of the 2019 Lok Sabha election results, the attitude of Akhilesh Yadav changed, Mayawati said.
“He did not respond to my phone calls and maintained a distance from BSP leaders as well. The BSP was left with no option but to walk out of the alliance,” she said.
Again, ahead of the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha, the SP has shown its anti- Dalit leanings by luring BSP MLAs to ensure defeat of the BSP candidate, who comes from the scheduled caste community, she said. The BSP had taken senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav into confidence before filing the nomination papers of its candidate, she said.
The four-time former UP chief minister also said BSP national general secretary SC Mishra made a phone call to Akhilesh Yadav, but there was no response. The BSP leadership had hoped that the SP would field Dimple Yadav, the wife of Akhilesh Yadav, as its second candidate for the Rajya Sabha, Mayawati said. Dimple Yadav had lost the Lok Sabha election and the BSP was ready to support her in the Rajya Sabha election, she said.
Instead of supporting the BSP candidate, the SP chief alleged that a deal had been struck between the BSP and BJP, Mayawati said.
Mayawati recalled that in 2003 Akhilesh’s father Mulayam Singh Yadav formed a government following the defection of 38 BSP MLAs when she resigned from the chief minister’s post. “The people taught a lesson to the SP by supporting the BSP in the 2007 assembly election. The SP bit the dust and BSP formed the government with its own majority,” she said.
Akhilesh was following in the footsteps of his father and the BSP would form the government again in the 2022 assembly election with a majority on its own, she asserted.
The SP has termed Mayawati’s allegations about it as baseless.