New Delhi: The much-hyped Opposition unity hit a hurdle Tuesday as BSP supremo Mayawati made it clear that her party’s alliance with the Congress in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh was “nothing but mere speculation”, and the Congress virtually extended an olive branch, indicating it was willing to play the role of a convenor and saying the “post of Prime Minister was open”.
RJD leader Tejwashi Yadav also said that “Congress president Rahul Gandhi is not the only leader from the Opposition in the race for the Prime Minister’s post”. The Congress further signalled that it was open to any leader, including Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee or BSP supremo Mayawati, to be in the PM race as long as it stopped the BJP from returning to power.
While Dalit powerhouse Mayawati huffed and puffed on Tuesday and mounted pressure on the Congress, saying her BSP was ready to go it alone in the poll-bound states and the same formula would be applied in Uttar Pradesh if the party didn’t get a “respectable number of seats”, the Congress sounded somewhat hopeful and claimed the “basic architecture of the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar alliance is in place”.
The Congress, however, was not ready to discuss the specifics of the seat-sharing formula at this juncture. Mayawati said, “Congress leaders are claiming an alliance has been sealed. (But) we intend to contest all seats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. We will not be in an alliance if we are not offered a respectable number of seats.”
The former UP CM also warned the BSP would follow a similar formula in Uttar Pradesh, making it clear her party and the Samajwadi Party would share the lion’s share of the state’s 80 seats. “The Congress should know the same condition applies to them in other states,” she added.
Congress sources said the party was confident of doing well in states like Gujarat, where it expected at least 12 seats, and in Maharashtra where it has firmed up an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party. It said it was ready to work with all parties to defeat the BJP and was ready to back anyone for the post of PM. Ms Mayawati’s statement, comes just two days after the Congress Working Committee decided to forge tactical alliances with like-minded parties.
