Joint contest would have helped us perform better: ?BSP? chief

CONGRESS LEADERS may be celebrating re-emergence of the party after over one-and-a-half decade, but its ally partner Bharatiya Samaj Party (?BSP?) is virtually in mourning.

CONGRESS LEADERS may be celebrating re-emergence of the party after over one-and-a-half decade, but its ally partner Bharatiya Samaj Party (‘BSP’) is virtually in mourning.

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Though Congress bagged the three mayor seats of Bareilly, Allahabad and Jhansi and fared well in Nagar Panchayats and Nagar Palikas in the state, the credit, according to its ally, goes to both the ‘BSP’ and Congress for this ‘impressive’ showing.

President of the ‘BSP’ Om Prakash Rajbhar said: “There are many areas like in Mirzapur district and parts of Varanasi, Ghazipur, Gorakhpur, Ballia, Jaunpur etc where Congress increased its vote share and also won some seats, but my party also fared well in many areas where Congress did not field its candidate.”

However, he said, “joint contest of the polls all over the state would have changed the entire scenario which unfortunately we were unable to do”. He said where ever his party organised rallies jointly with Congress, the latter performed well.

Rajbhar said he called on UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi twice between November 4-8 and briefed her about the state of political affairs in the aftermath of civic poll outcome.

It is noteworthy to mention that Congress and ‘BSP’ have been planning to play a long innings together in UP politics.

In this connection, Rajbhar has had several meetings with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. However, Rajbhar has set a condition for sewing this alliance —- to announce incorporation of some other castes like Rajbhars etc in the Scheduled Tribe category.