Mayawati says BSP to fight LS polls alone; terms NDA, INDIA coalitions anti-Dalit

BSP chief Mayawati on Wednesday announced that her party will go it alone in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as well as in Assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.

In a statement here, Mayawati said the BSP was open to tie-ups with regional parties in Punjab and Haryana, provided they have no truck with the ruling NDA alliance or the newly formed opposition coalition 'INDIA'.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister slammed the NDA as well as the newly formed opposition coalition, alleging neither of them was favourable to the Dalits and the oppressed classes.

While the BJP-led NDA and the Congress-led INDIA alliance were strengthening themselves, BSP too was holding closed-door meetings of party workers across the country, Mayawati said.

She said the oppressed classes has to support the BSP as the Congress adopted a "casteist mindset and ignored their demands".

"Had the Congress kept aside its casteist and capitalist mindset, worked towards the welfare of the poor and the oppressed and listened to B R Ambedkar, the need to form the BSP would not have arisen," Mayawati said.