‘Party has not weakened in Haryana, performed better than before in assembly elections’: BSP claims

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party has claimed that this time in Haryana elections, BSP got 252671 votes in the 36 assembly seats where BSP candidates contested. This is 4.51 percent of the total votes cast on these seats, whereas in the 2019 assembly elections, BSP got 4.14% votes and then the party contested on all 82 seats. Apart from this, the party has claimed that BSP has performed better in the assembly this time than in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

According to BSP, it got 1.28 percent votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, while in this assembly election the party got 1.82 percent votes. On the basis of the votes and percentage received by BSP in the last two elections, the party has claimed that its base has increased more than the last election. It is true that BSP could not win the seat but it was at number two in 1 seat and third in 7 seats. However, Mayawati clearly said that BSP did not get any special benefit from the alliance with Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana. Mayawati even announced that BSP will not form alliance with any regional party in future. Haryana BSP claims that the party’s performance has been much better and vote share has increased compared to the last election.

The reason behind Mayawati’s announcement regarding alliance is also that this time INLD got the votes of Dalits but BSP did not get the votes of Jats. Immediately after the results, Mayawati has strongly criticized the party for not getting the votes of Jats. According to BSP, if the vote share of the party is seen separately in 36 seats, it has been better than the last election and Mayawati’s argument is that if BSP fights alone then it is much better than the regional parties. Actually, Akash Anand was given the responsibility of Haryana elections and everything from alliance in the state to election campaign, candidate selection and election strategy was in the hands of Akash Anand. But this time BSP lost a seat while winning it. Ateli seat where the daughter of veteran BJP leader Rao Indrajit Singh won in the last phase of counting.

BSP may be claiming better performance but the defeat in election after election is raising serious questions on the party. Mayawati has announced that now BSP will not form any alliance with anyone and will fight all the elections on its own. Now it remains to be seen how big a force BSP can emerge as alone.