Bhopal: Dealing a blow to the alliance talks with the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, the BSP on Thursday unilaterally released a list of 22 candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls in the state.
The announcement holds major significance as the 22 seats on which the Mayawati-led party has announced candidates are the constituencies primarily in Vindhya and Gwalior region where the party derives maximum support.
Out of the four sitting MLAs – the party has opted to repeat the three names yet again: Sheela Tyagi, Usha Thakur, Satyaprakash Sakhwar; while Dimni BSP MLA Balber Singh Dandotia has failed to find a mention in the list released by Mayawati’s office.
In another development, the BSP announced its pre-poll tie up with Ajit Jogi’s Janta Congress Chhattisgarh in the neighboring Chhattisgarh.
Announcement in this regard was made by BSP supremo Mayawati early in the day when she also made it clear that if the alliance were to come to power in the state, Ajit Jogi will be the CM candidate. The BSP will contest on 55 seats while Janta Congress Chhattisgarh will field candidates on the remaining 35.
The reason why the Congress-BSP alliance in Chhattisgarh did not materialise was perhaps the fact that the grand old party was willing to give only five seats to the BSP.
In MP too a similar scenario is playing out. Sources claim, that Congress is not willing to give more than 10 to 15 seats to the BSP.
BSP chief had last week indicated her party will have alliance only if offered a respectable number of seats.
Soon after Kamal Nath assumed office as MPCC president, the veteran leader, though saying that the Congress was open to alliance with anti-BJP forces, has so far not presented any concrete strategy or deadline for alliance with the BSP.
If the BSP decides to go solo in MP, it won’t be good news for the Congress as the former had secured close to 6.5% votes in 2013 Assembly polls. Also, Dalits account for 15.2% of the population in the state.
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