Maya blows poll bugle, rules out alliance with Cong, JD(U)

LUCKNOW: Asking her party’s sitting MLAs and other candidates to start preparing for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly election, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati

LUCKNOW: Asking her party’s sitting MLAs and other candidates to start preparing for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly election, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Sunday rejected the offer of the Congress and the Janata Dal (U) to join a grand alliance for the poll.

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“People have made up their mind to bring the BSP to power,” she told party workers at the state unit office here. Like UP, the BSP would contest the Uttarakhand and Punjab assembly elections on its own, she clarified. “The BSP will not join any political alliance, nor go for a pact with any political party to contest the assembly election in the three states,” she said.

On Saturday, Janata Dal (U) leaders had urged BSP chief to join an anti-Samajwadi Party (SP) and anti-BJP alliance in UP. Speaking at a public meeting in Mirzapur, the JD(U) leaders had said, “The BSP should join the grand alliance to defeat communal and casteist forces.”

Earlier, Congress leaders had also said they would welcome an alliance with the BSP in UP.

Meanwhile, at least three rebel Congress legislators — Mohammad Muslim from Tiloi (Rae Bareli), Dilnawaz Khan from Sayana (Bulandshahar) and Nawab Kazim Ali Khan from Swar (Rampur) — and a former SP MLA Shyam Prakash attended the party workers’ meeting.

These MLAs had voted in support of BSP candidates in Rajya Sabha and biennial Legislative Council elections held this month.

They have all been expelled from their respective parties.