Mayawati Declines To Fight Lok Sabha Polls; Says Can Get A Seat Vacated And Contest Later If She Wants

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati has said that she won’t contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls scheduled in April-May, Economic Times has reported.

Mayawati was quoted as saying that her coalition with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) is doing good. She added that she can vacate a seat land contest for the Lok Sabha later if she wants.

Currently, the SP will contest 37 and the BSP 38 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh respectively. SP has given one seat to the Rashtriya Lok Dal from its own quota. The alliance had earlier decided to not contest from Rae Bareli and Amethi, the high profile bastions of the Gandhi family.

The Congress which had been snubbed from the alliance had announced that it won’t field its candidates in seven parliamentary constituency being contested by the high-profile members of the alliance.

However, Mayawati rebuffed the offer and said that the Congress party is absolutely free to contest elections on all the 80 seats of Uttar Pradesh. She also said that Congress should not spread wrong impression by vacating these seven seats.