BSP to go alone in Lok Sabha polls; Mayawati will not support ‘communal' BJP

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party will field candidates in all 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and will not go with "communal" BJP and its allies for government formation, its supremo Mayawati said on Thursday.

Releasing BSP's list of all candidates in the state in one instalment "unlike political opponents", she said her party is contesting the elections with full preparation to "emerge as the balance of power at the Centre".

"Once we emerge as balance of power, we will take the help of only secular parties for forming the government," the BSP supremo said.

On BJP with whose support she had formed the government in UP thrice, Mayawati said that she has already gone with the saffron party in the state and would not do it again as there had been no change in its ideology.

"We have tried BJP thrice in UP and there has not been any change in their thinking and ideology. When we were in a coalition we ran the government as per our ideology and once they tried to interfere in it we opted out," she said.

"Instead of issues like unemployment, corruption and poverty, the coming elections appear to be a contest between two ideologies of communalism and secularism," she said, adding that most parties have fielded their candidates keeping this fact in mind.

The former chief minister asserted that her party would fight the coming polls with all its strength to check communal parties from coming to power and, at the same time, said that Congress-led UPA which has "failed on all fronts" should not be allowed to return.

Asked whether she would take the help of Samajwadi Party for government formation, she said that BSP does not consider it as a secular party.