BSP has clearly stated on 24th July that they will forge an alliance with the Congress party only if they are offered a respectable number of seats.
“The BSP will contest elections as a part of coalition government only if it gets a respectable number of seats,” stated Mayawati in a press briefing in Delhi. During the press briefing, Mayawati also attacked the Centre over the Alwar lynching incident.
“Mob lynching is a deed of narrow-minded BJP members and supporters, but they consider it patriotism. I condemn the Alwar lynching incident but think that BJP would not be able to take appropriate action in the case. Therefore, I request the court to intervene,” she added.
Addressing the alliances for the 2019 polls, it has been stated that its alliances with the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan has happened on agreeable seat sharing policies and asserted that the same applies for Congress. On the occasion, which became an unofficial opposition summit for the upcoming polls, UPA chief Sonia Gandhi was seen hugging Mayawati, who already has an alliance with Samajwadi chief Akhilesh Yadav for 2019 and contested the Karnataka assembly election at the side of Mr. Kumaraswamy. The Congress entered late in the Karnataka alliance, choosing to back up Mr. Kumaraswamy to keep the BJP out of power.
While Congress leaders in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh feel that an alliance with the Dalit leader will help the party, leaders from Rajasthan counter that an alliance will be ‘beneficial’ for the BSP in the state and ‘injurious’ for the Congress in the long term.
Last month, the Congress had reached out to Mayawati about an alliance for the coming elections in Madhya Pradesh. Days later, a leader from the BSP party dismissed the possibility of such an alliance, saying that the BSP will contest all 230 seats in the state.
Mayawati warned her senior leaders against making public comments or statements on the possibility of alliances, saying such remarks would amount to indiscipline.