Make Maya PM candidate if you want BSP in INDIA: MP
The INDIA bloc should take decision to project BSP chief as PM candidate, said BSP MP from Bijnor Malook Nagar.
The Bahujan Samaj Party will consider joining the INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc if party chief Mayawati is projected as the prime ministerial candidate for 2024 Lok Sabha election, BSP MP from Bijnor Malook Nagar said on Wednesday.
In addition, the Congress must apologise for weaning away BSP MLAs in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan after the 2018 assembly elections, Nagar said days after UP Congress president Ajay Rai suggested the BSP should seriously consider joining the INDIA bloc of Opposition parties.
Rai, who is leading the party’ s UP Jodo Yatra from Saharanpur to Lucknow, had said on December 22, “Given the current political scenario in the country and the condition of Dalits, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati should seriously consider joining the INDIA alliance.”
Nagar, who is a close aide of the BSP chief, said Mayawati is the tallest Dalit leader in the country and support for her cuts across states.
By projecting Mayawati as the PM candidate, the INDIA alliance will be able to stop the BJP from winning a third consecutive term in the upcoming Lok Sabha election, he said.
“The victory formula for the alliance is clear. In the 2022 (Uttar Pradesh) assembly election, the BJP polled 41.3% votes. The parties constituting the INDIA bloc polled around 40% votes and the BSP secured around 13% votes. If the BSP joins the alliance, the vote percentage will go above 50% which is enough to snatch power from the BJP. Projection of Mayawati as the PM candidate will also bring back the Dalit voters who have been lured by the saffron brigade,” he said.
The INDIA bloc should take decision to project BSP chief as PM candidate, the Bijnor MP further said.
Mayawati will (then) not only forgive the Congress for its misdeed to poach the BSP MLAs in Rajasthan and MP, but will also have a positive approach towards the INDIA alliance offer, he said.
Reacting to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal proposing Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge as PM candidate at the INDIA bloc meeting in New Delhi on December 19 , Nagar said they did so to stop the Congress from proposing Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate. Both the leaders were aware of the fact that alliance partners will oppose Kharge’s candidature. Infighting started in the INDIA bloc after the Delhi meeting, he said.
After the Samajwadi Party had reportedly opposed the move to induct the Bahujan Samaj Party into the INDIA bloc, Mayawati had indicated that she wished to keep the doors open for future political alignments.
“It is inappropriate for anyone to make unnecessary comments on parties, including the BSP, that are not a part of the opposition alliance,” she had said last week.
“My suggestion to them is that they should refrain from it because you can never say who will need whom in the future in the public interest,” Mayawati had added.