TIL Desk/National/Lucknow/ Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has announced a break-up with the Samajwadi Party. Announcing the split of the alliance, the BSP head said, “In the interest of the party and movement, the BSP will now contest all the elections going forward alone on its own.” On Sunday during her partys national executive meeting, she blamed SP president Akhilesh Yadav for the humiliating defeat of their alliance in Lok Sabha elections.
A BSP leader, who was present at the meeting, quoted Mayawati as saying that Yadav had neither visited nor talked to her over phone ever since the Lok Sabha election results were announced. She also accused him of working “against non-Yadav backward communities” and even neglecting the Muslims while he was the Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
The Mayawati-Akhilesh Yadav combo failed to replicate the success of bypolls last year, managing only 15 of UP’s 80 seats, far less than the BJP’s rich haul of 62. Mayawati has blamed it on the Samajwadi Party’s failure to transfer its vote base to her BSP. However, her party made more gains – from zero in 2014, the BSP rose to 10 seats.