Karnataka - Mysore   

Mayawati prefers natural alliance to electoral tie-up

By Our Staff Correspondent

MYSORE, MARCH 23. Reiterating the Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) decision to go it alone in the general elections, the President of the party, Mayawati, today said that an electoral alliance would only benefit the alliance partner and not the BSP.

"In the event of the BSP entering into an electoral alliance with a `manuvadi' party, the votes of the alliance partner will not come to the BSP candidate but those of the BSP will go to the alliance partner," Ms. Mayawati reasoned out at an election rally here this evening.

Claiming that her reasoning was based on the party's experience during the 1996 elections to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Ms. Mayawati said the Congress had approached her party for an alliance.

"Despite our reservations, the Congress leaders assured us that their votes would be transferred to the BSP in constituencies where the BSP candidates would be fielded. But our expectations were belied when the BSP candidates did not secure the Congress votes," she said. As a result, the BSP lost about 100 seats. Hence, the party had taken a decision to go it alone in the elections, she said.

However, Ms. Mayawati said her party was not averse to entering into an alliance if the BSP and the alliance partner would mutually benefit from the tie-up. "The manuvadis in the alliance will not change their mindset, which is prejudiced against the Bahujan Samaj. Hence, the BSP will not benefit from entering into any alliance. Only the alliance partner will reap the benefits of an electoral understanding with the BSP," she said.

Instead, Ms. Mayawati favoured a "natural alliance" of voters comprising Dalits, members of the Other Backward Classes, and the minorities, who constituted 85 per cent of the country's population.

Just like the Congress which "finished" the Republican Party of India (RPI) politically, the BJP was trying to politically finish the BSP. "As they have failed in this task, they have resorted to frame me in the Taj Corridor case on trumped up charges," Ms. Mayawati said. But expressing the confidence that she would emerge unscathed from the "trap" laid out for her, she said the CBI, which was probing the case, would not be able to prove the allegations against her.

Manifesto

The election manifesto of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which was released by its President, Mayawati, here on Monday, promises social justice by ensuring reservation for all castes, including religious minorities and the upper castes.

It promises to extend reservation to the judiciary, the Upper Houses in Parliament and State Legislature, the Cabinet, and the private sector.

The manifesto categorically states that the BSP is not opposed to reservation for the upper castes, but it should be proportionate to the ratio of their population. As backward caste groups constitute 85 per cent of the population, they should be accorded 85 per cent reservation while the upper caste groups should get 15 per cent reservation, the manifesto states.

The BSP also makes it clear that it will support the reservation system as long as the socio-economic conditions of the backward caste groups will not improve.

The manifesto accuses major political parties of opposing reservation, as a result of which the benefits of reservation have not percolated to even half of the population of the country.

The party promises to enact a new economic policy that will focus on the poor, the deprived, and the socially backward people, who, the party says, constitute 85 per cent of the population.

The manifesto describes the BSP as not only a political party but a social movement and notes that "political reform and social reform are two wheels of the same vehicle and the absence of anyone of them will bring the vehicle to a grinding halt."

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