BSP's Mayawati blames BJP's 'conspiracy' in UP after bypoll fiasco

Mayawati's BSP has pinned the blame for their loss in the Uttar Pradesh assembly bypolls on the ruling BJP for its debacle, saying it helped the Samajwadi Party (SP) win some seats. "As part of a conspiracy to bring the morale of the BSP men down before the UP Vidhan Sabha elections, the BJP in these bypolls made the Samajwadi Party win some seats and not allow the BSP to win a single seat," BSP president Mayawati tweeted after the loss in the elections. "Partymen understand this well. They will definitely work wholeheartedly to fail their conspiracy," she added.

In the bypolls to 11 assembly segments, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal (S) bagged 8 seats and the SP three. The SP, which emerged as the biggest gainer, wrested Zaidpur seat from the ruling BJP and Jalalpur from the BSP, while retaining Rampur. The Uttar Pradesh bypoll results were a setback for BSP, which had sought to project itself as the prime opposition in the state. It not only failed to retain its Jalalpur seat but also pushed to the fourth spot in six of the 11 assembly segments.

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BSP's Chaya Verma lost the Jalalpur seat to Samajwadi Party's Subhash Rai by a slender margin of 790 votes. Chaya Verma is the daughter of senior BSP leader Lalji Verma and Jalalpur was a BSP stronghold from where its candidate Ritesh Pandey had won the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year.

The party candidates fared below Congress nominees and also lost deposits at many of the seats.  On six seats-Gangoh, Rampur, Lucknow Cantt, Govindnagar, Pratapgarh, and Zaidpur-its candidates fared a poor fourth. On three others-Manikpur, Balha and Ghosi-it took the third spot and on two-Iglas and Jalapur-it finished the runners up.

BSP's Mayawati accuses Congress for Haryana loss

After BSP drew naught in the Haryana Assembly 2019 polls, supremo Mayawati termed Congress' "selfishness" as the reason behind her party's abysmal defeat. The former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh said that the Congress party publicised 'the fear of votes division.' Further stating that there has been a rise in BSP's vote share in 2019 in comparison to the Haryana assembly 2014 elections.  

Mayawati said, "The people of Haryana were also very sad and distressed by the misrule of the BJP government and wanted to get rid of them. But the Congress party greatly publicised the fear of votes division among the public, for their selfishness. Due to this, the dedicated voters of BSP did not deter, but other voters definitely get confused.

"The BSP could not win seats in the Haryana Assembly general election this time, although the BSP has received more votes than the previous time," she added. The BSP had contested 41 candidates in Haryana, however, failed to draw even a single seat. In 2014, BSP had won one seat in the state.  

The BSP, which was the major gainer in this year's Lok Sabha polls, winning 10 seats in alliance with the Samajwadi Party, had decided to contest the bypolls after almost 12 years. 

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(With PTI inputs)