BSP to expand support base with 2022 UP Assembly polls in mind

After the BSP failed to retain an Assembly seat in the recent bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, its supremo Mayawati on Wednesday held a meeting with party leaders here to review the loss and stressed the need for expanding the support base with 2022 state polls in mind.

She also reinstated Amroha MP Danish Ali as the leader of the BSP parliamentary party, days ahead of the commencement of the winter session of Parliament.

The meeting of party office-bearers, including MPs and MLAs, was held against the backdrop of the Bahujan Samaj Party losing the Jalalpur seat in Ambedkarnagar district to the Samajwadi Party.

This was the first seat the SP wrested from the BSP after the two parties broke the alliance stitched up before the Lok Sabha polls.

Accusing the BJP and the SP of working together to dent the morale of BSP, Mayawati said, "There has been a tacit understanding between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party to weaken the confidence of the BSP ahead of the UP Assembly elections. Both these parties secretly shook hands and did not allow the BSP to win a single seat in the bypolls."

Bypolls were held to fill vacancies created in 12 Assembly constituencies after sitting MLAs got elected to the Lok Sabha while another became a state governor.

"Both the BJP and the SP are quite afraid of the Dalit-Muslim combination and hence they played this trick. The SP also publicised that by giving more tickets to Muslims, only the BJP stands to gain," she said in a statement.

In the same refrain, she said, "Irrespective of the steps taken to misguide the Muslims, I am not going to remove Munquad Ali from the post of state BSP chief. I am also making Danish Ali the leader of the BSP parliamentary party."

Jaunpur MP Shyam Singh Yadav was made the party leader in the Lok Sabha in August in place of Danish Ali, who was reportedly removed for deviating from the party line on the Centre's decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370.

Munquad Ali was made party's UP unit chief in place RS Kushwaha, who was made general secretary of the party's central unit.

Mayawati also said that the Congress, the BJP and the SP are doing politics over Ayodhya, Article 370 and triple talaq, but the BSP has never misused religion for vested electoral and political gains.