Mayawati is digging up such a chase between her party Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress that it would be difficult for them to make an alliance of any sort post-2019 election results.
Though opportunistic politics that the two parties practice—remember how Congress allied with JD(S) and flirted with AAP—can’t rule out any future alliance yet their present hostility deserves a marker for the future.
Mayawati’s latest outburst is aimed at Congress’ machinations in Madhya Pradesh where the latter has won over BSP’s Guna candidate who is asking for SP-BSP candidates to be beaten at hustings.
“It’s a gross misuse of official machinery in MP. BSP will respond by contesting on its symbol and will review its decision to extend support to Congress in Madhya Pradesh in near future,” tweeted Mayawati.
Mayawati’s diatribe extended to her home state Uttar Pradesh too. “Congress was campaigning that let BJP win in UP but SP-BSP alliance should not win. It shows the castiest and the double standards of the Congress…” she said in another tweet.
The elections in Guna are to be held on May 12, the penultimate phase of elections. The BSP candidate Lokendra Singh Rajput joined Congress on Monday and extended his support to Congress’s candidate Jyotiraditya Scindia, the day when Mayawati had to address a rally there and pamphlets were already distributed.
Later, MP Chief Minister Kamal Nath did his best to smoothen the rough edge. He said: “Our target is one, our ideology is one. There are no differences between us. If there’s any misunderstanding we will sit together and resolve it. There is no resentment,”
However, the damage had already been done to BSP. The words of Pankaj Chaturvedi, a close aide of Jyotiraditya Scindia denying any misuse of official machinery and claiming that Rajput was impressed with Congress’s policies and Scindia and thus switched didn’t help. The argument, as expected, didn’t cut much ice with BSP supremo.
Mayawati has been having quite a go at Congress lately. She termed “Nyay” promise of Congress as hollow poll promise. Addressing a rally at Roorkee recently she said: “It’s not a permanent scheme to alleviate poverty.” She also came down hard on Kamal Nath for slapping National Security Act (NSA) on three Muslim men for allegedly killing a cow. She also mocked the loan-waiver promise of Congress in MP claiming Congress is never honest to their promise.
The attacks by Mayawati against Congress defines its struggle to find electoral footprints and its preemptive strike at Muslim and Dalit vote-bank, which she feels can be swayed away by Congress with its NYAY promise and its manifesto against sedition laws.
