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BSP to contest limited number of seats in Assembly polls

By Our Special Correspondent

The Bahujan Samaj Party president, Mayawati, addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday. — Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

NEW DELHI NOV. 1. The Bahujan Samaj Party president, Mayawati, said today that the primary objective of her party's electoral strategy is to ensure the defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the coming Assembly elections. As part of the strategy, the BSP has decided to contest only a limited number of seats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Chhattisgarh, to prevent a split in the anti-BJP vote.

"We will contest only the seats we can win. In the other constituencies, our people must vote for the party that is most likely to defeat the BJP,'' she told a press conference here.

She said the party would do everything in its power to prevent the BJP from forming governments in any of the States. "Wherever we cannot form a Government on our own, we will facilitate the formation of an anti-BJP government," she said.

Though the BSP president ruled out the possibility of a formal alliance with any other party, the principal beneficiary of the decision to contest only a limited number of seats would be the Congress. Ms. Mayawati said the main concern was to prevent the BJP from coming back to power at the Centre and as a first step the BSP would try to ensure its defeat in the coming elections. "We have taken this decision in the interest of the Bahujan Samaj and to protect our honour," she said.

She said the BSP would contest only 160 of the 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 125 of the 200 seats in Rajasthan, 55 of the 90 seats in Chhattisgarh and 40 of the 70 seats in Delhi.

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