Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Kanshi Rams remark on Sunday that his party will not align with BJP during the next Lok Sabha or assembly polls has alarmed some BJP leaders, although they claim they were prepared for such an eventuality.
This is not unexpected of Kanshi Ram, senior party leader and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Sunder Singh Bhandari told Business Standard yesterday.
However, such statements from Ram indicated that the BJP should be prepared for any eventuality in the state, he said. In the normal course, the transfer should take place, he held, adding that in case it does not happen the BJP will opt out.
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Some party leaders hold that Rams statement could be strategic and was issued with a view to fomenting trouble during the impending transfer of power from Chief Minister Mayawati to BJP leader Kalyan Singh next month.
Mayawati is expected to relinquish office in favour of Singh on September 21 as per the agreement between the two parties. Ram has said that the transfer would be smooth.
The BJP is particularly peeved at Rams assertion that the BSPs support to the BJP-led government in the state could not be taken for granted.
Our support to the new BJP government will depend on what they do, what they seek to achieve. We cant be taken for granted, Ram said at Chennai on Sunday.
Such condition was not stipulated in the agreement and it clearly indicated that the BSP wanted to create trouble, a senior BJP leader said.
The BJP has followed the agreement in letter and spirit and now it was the BSPs turn to reciprocate.
Bhandari claimed that Rams statement would not affect the BJPs chances at the next Lok Sabha elections or at the assembly election in the state, but he admitted that a BJP-BSP alliance was a formidable combination. Now, we will tell people that we tried our best and that despite our best efforts the BSP has not come with us, Bhandari said.
One being asked whether the BJP would try to persuade the BSP for an alliance at least in Uttar Pradesh, he quipped: Kya hum dharna lagayen (Shall we stage dharna to do this.)
It is for the people to decide what they want. Let them decide whether they wish to save the state by giving it a stable government or want the instability continue, Bhandari said.
The BJP would have been forced to allocate more than 70 assembly seats to the BSP in case the two decided to together contest the UP assembly elections, Bhandari claimed.
Some party leaders even talk of giving 100 assembly seats to the BSP, he disclosed. Now we will have the liberty to contest all the seats.