BSP seeks withdrawal of cases filed during Bharat Bandh, threatens to withdraw support to Congress in MP, Rajasthan

Lucknow: The Bahujan Samaj Party on Monday threatened to withdraw support to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. [caption id=“attachment_4404181” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of BSP chief Mayawati. PTI[/caption] While asking the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan governments to withdraw cases filed during the Bharat Bandh held earlier this year over the alleged “dilution” of SCs/STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, BSP said that if the Congress fails to do so then it would reconsider its decision to give outside support to the Congress in both states. A statement released by the party reads, “We demand that cases filed by the then BJP government in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan during the ‘Bharat Bandh’ held on 2 April 2018 for SC/ST Act, 1989 and reservation in promotion of government workers to be withdrawn. If these demands are not met, we’ll reconsider our decision to give outside support to Congress.” On 12 December, the Mayawati-led party extended its support to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to help the party form the government in both states. In the 230-member strong Legislative Assembly of Madhya Pradesh, BJP — that ruled the state for 15 years, trailed marginally at 109, while the Samajwadi Party (SP) won 1 seat and Mayawati’s BSP bagged two seats. On the other hand, Independents won four seats all over the state. Meanwhile, in the 199-seat Assembly of Rajasthan, the Congress bagged 99 seats to dethrone the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP, which won 73 seats. The CPM won two seats, BSP six, Independents 13 and others six.