Mayawati's exit 'can't dent fortunes' of Congress, says Madhya Pradesh party chief Kamal Nath ahead of Assembly polls

Bhopal: No political party can dent the fortune of Congress even if there is no alliance, asserted Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath on Thursday in reference to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati’s decision to go alone in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan assembly polls due at end of the year. Expressing confidence that the Congress will bounce back to power in Madhya Pradesh, Nath said that people of the state will vote only for the Congress. Reiterating his confidence, Nath said that BSP too is believed to be in favour of weeding out the BJP from the state. [caption id=“attachment_4447205” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Congress leader Kamal Nath. PTI[/caption] The senior Congress leader also revealed that he is also holding negotiations with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav for the upcoming polls. Speaking to the media, Nath said, “Mayawati by breaking alliance with the Congress will not have any effect on us pertaining to the vote share. We will confidently fight the upcoming polls in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. I have spoken to Akhilesh Yadav regarding the alliance.” In an attempt to cover up allegations against the Congress levelled by Mayawati, Nath in turn counter-blamed the BSP supremo for seeking seats more than the party deserved. For instance, he pointed out, “In 2013, (BSP) got 6.29 percent of vote share in Madhya Pradesh assembly elections (whereas) Mayawati demanded a seat share of 50, and these seats were not those where they got over 20,000 votes. This didn’t go well with us.” Congress under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi will contest upcoming assembly elections in the state and in Rajasthan with full planning, determination and strategy, Nath said. In 2013, BJP bagged 165 seats by securing 44.88 percent of vote share. Congress won 58 seats with 36.38 percent vote share while BSP won only four seats with 6.29 percent vote share. On Wednesday, Mayawati announced that her party will contest independently in the upcoming assembly polls citing that Congress party was trying to wipe out her party by giving it few seats in major states where they were negotiating for alliance. Mayawati said, “In Rajasthan, the Congress was offering us only nine seats out of 200 assembly seats, in Madhya Pradesh 15-20 (out of 230 seats in the state), in Chhattisgarh only five-six seats out of 90. We have noticed that whenever we contested elections in alliance, all our votes got transferred to the Congress. The BSP loses more due to the alliance as all its votes get transferred to the Congress. In this back drop, we think the Congress is trying to eliminate small parties like BSP in the name of wiping out the BJP. The BSP has the power to change the course of the river. We won’t bow down before the BJP and the Congress. We won’t go with the Congress at any cost in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.”