We will think of a possible tie-up with the UF if SP is not part of it, the former UP Chief Minister said, when pressed on the question. On her own, she had ruled out the possibility of giving support to, or getting support from, either the Bharatiya Janata Party or the United Front.
Addressing newsmen in the capital yesterday she said: We would prefer to sit in opposition rather than join hands with the BJP or the SP to form the government, in case we fail to get an absolute majority, he said.
Her press conference, for which she rushed back from the third phase of the campaign, came close on the heels of former Prime Minister VP Singh's assertion on Wednesday that there may be a Centre-like political arrangement in UP as well to keep the BJP out of power.
In a long statement and in her remarks, Mayawati concentrated her attack against Union defence minister and SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, treating the BJP as her second enemy. Mayawati said that during the election campaign she got to know that the SP was ready to transfer its votes to the BJP in order to defeat the BSP.
She alleged that Yadav's claims about secular credentials were questionable as he was ready to let the BJP win in order to defeat the BSP. She held that Muslims would see this and redouble their support for the BSP. She sat flanked by Muslim leaders whom she had brought with her to issue appeals to Muslim voters.
She did not spare the BJP either, charging that the latter was trying to arouse tension.
The BJP leaders are campaigning that, once the BSP comes to power, land belonging to farmers and landlords will be distributed among the landless, she said, adding that there was no truth in such campaigns.
Mayawati said four-and-a-half months of her rule bore testimony to the fact that she never attempted to snatch anybody's land. If she wanted to give land to the landless, she would give government surplus land.
Explaining the logic for Muslims to vote for the BSP, she said that of the 20.8 per cent votes which the SP got in the Lok Sabha elections, 15 per cent was from Muslims, whereas of the BSP's share of 20.6 per cent votes only one per cent was Muslim's vote. Thus, if the Muslims added their votes to the BSP's share, it would poll more than 30 per cent, while the SP and its allies could not grow beyond what it had got in May.
She optimistically said that her party was getting support from higher caste voters as well.
