Mayawati’s BSP says no alliance with Congress for Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Sunday made it clear that it was not on talks with the Congress to stitch a pre-poll alliance for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections and the party will contest elections on all 230 seats in the state.

“I was asked by the media that Congress leaders were saying that there are discussions underway with the BSP for an alliance for the next assembly elections. I clarified that we are not in discussions at the state level and, I think, neither at the central leadership level,” PTI quoted BSP state president Narmada Prasad Ahirwar as saying.

Ahirwar said that there were no directions from the central leadership in this regard and the party will contest all Assembly seats in the state.

“As things stand today, we are going to contest all230 Assembly seats. I have received no directives in this connection (alliance) from the central leadership,” Ahirwar said.

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Reacting to Ahirwar’s statement, the state Congress said that the party had said that it was in alliance talks with “political parties with a similar ideology” and never named the BSP.

“We never named any party. The Congress only said that we would try to have an alliance with political parties with a similar ideology. We never mentioned the BSP’s name. It will depend on the situation when we enter the election phase,” Madhya Pradesh Congress media department chief Manak Agarwal said.

Earlier, there were reports that the Congress and the BSP were planning to join hands to fight against the BJP in the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls slated to be held in November or December this year.