‘Lost hope, BJP workers want to join SP, BSP’: Akhilesh Yadav tweets after tie-up

A day after announcing the SP-BSP alliance, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday tweeted the alliance has unnerved the BJP so much that the party’s demoralised and desperate leaders and workers are now getting restive and want to join the SP and BSP.

A day after announcing the SP-BSP alliance, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday tweeted the alliance has unnerved the BJP so much that the party’s demoralised and desperate leaders and workers are now getting restive and want to join the SP and BSP.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav during a joint press conference, in Lucknow, India. (Subhankar Chakraborty/HT PHOTO)

On Saturday, Akhilesh and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, announced their alliance in Uttar Pradesh with an equal share of 38 seats to each party, leaving two for Congress (Amethi and Rae Bareli) and two others for prospective partners. The two leaders had been working towards this alliance since March last year.

In his tweet on Sunday morning, after chief minister Yogi Adityanath and other BJP leaders’ reactions to the alliance, said, “The BSP-SP alliance has made the top leadership of BJP and its entire organisation lose hope. Now, BJP’s booth level workers are saying ‘Mera booth chaknachoor (now my BJP booth is shattered)’. Such demoralised and desperate leaders and workers are restive about joining the SP and BSP.”

Read | P Chidambaram hopes for rethink on SP-BSP alliance, says Congress ready to fight alone

This is Akhilesh’s first reaction to BJP’s reactions on the alliance.

At Saturday’s joint press conference, Akhilesh made it amply clear that it was he who initiated the SP-BSP alliance idea which the BSP supremo accepted.

“In my subconscious, the idea of the SP-BSP alliance germinated on that very day when BJP leaders began insulting Mayawatiji (the reference was to the time when Mayawati had resigned from Rajya Sabha, hitting out at BJP). The BJP, instead of punishing those leaders, made them ministers with big portfolios and egged them on,” he said.

He recalled, “In my mind, I had put the final seal on the alliance that day, when through deceit the BJP had defeated the joint candidate for Rajya Sabha, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and then celebrated. It was very necessary for the SP and the BSP to unite to shatter the BJP’s arrogance. Once again, I thank Mayawatiji for her historic decision taken in the national interest. I assure all that now the oppressive rule of the BJP will end.”