Mayawati ends alliance with Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party; SP leader Ramashankar Vidyarthi says BSP chief 'weakening fight'

With her party's tie-up with the Samajwadi Party going nowhere, BSP supremo Mayawati on Monday announced that her party will contest all elections alone in future.

Taking to Twitter, she said, "The behaviour of the SP after the Lok Sabha general elections compels the BSP to think whether it will be possible to defeat the BJP further. That is not possible. So in the interest of the party and the movement, the BSP will now fight all the major elections on its own."

"Everyone is aware that forgetting everything of the past, as well as anti-BSP and anti-Dalit decisions such as reservation in promotions and bad law and order during the SP rule in 2012-2017, the BSP adhered to the 'gathbandhan dharma' with the Samajwadi Party in the interest of the country," she tweeted in Hindi.

File photo of Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati. PTI

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"But the SP's attitude after the elections forced the BSP to think, will it be possible to defeat the BJP in the future? It will not be possible," she added. "Therefore, in the interest of the party and the movement, the party will contest all small and big elections on its own strength."

Mayawati's statement comes a day after the BSP reviewed its performance in the Lok Sabha polls and its alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav-led party. The BSP, which had contested the election in alliance with the SP and Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal, had won 10 seats and the SP, just five.

Mayawati weakening fight for social justice

Soon after she announced her decision, SP national general secretary Ramashankar Vidyarthi told journalists in Balia that Mayawati was speaking against the SP in haste because of the Dalit support for the SP and Akhilesh.

"She is weakening the fight for social justice," he said, adding that Dalit society is getting connected with the SP and Akhilesh in a big way. "People know about the reality about what the 'malkin' of the alliance has done."

Commenting on the development, Congress spokesperson Dwijendra Tripathi said commitment is most important in politics.

"Commitment with the people as well as among political parties is very important... If people feel that politicians cannot keep their words while dealing with each other, they will not be able to keep their promises made to the people," Tripathi said, adding that the problem we now see is an outcome of lack of commitment.

Earlier in June, Mayawati had announced her decision for the BSP to go solo in the bypolls to 11 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh. She had then said that the split would not be permanent if Akhilesh got his act together.

The BSP chief has repeatedly sought to blame the Samajwadi Party for bringing the BSP's poll performance down. She had told her party workers earlier in June, in New Delhi, that the drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections was due to the "poor performance" of the Samajwadi Party.

Her statement also comes weeks after she said Akhilesh had asked her to not give tickets to Muslims as it would result in religious polarisation.