By IANS,
New Delhi : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati said Sunday her party would fight the Lok Sabha polls on its own but did not rule out an alliance with the Third Front after the elections.
Hours before she hosts a dinner for Third Front leaders at her new residence here, Mayawati ruled out any pre-poll alliance with other parties. Though she has ruled out any pre-poll alliance, the BSP chief had sent her trusted emissary Satish Misra to the launch function of the Third Front in Tumkur on Thursday – a move to keep all her options open.
“This time the Bahujan Samaj Party will fight the elections on its own. We are fully prepared and we will not align with any other political party,” Mayawati told reporters at a function here on the birth anniversary of BSP founder Kanshi Ram.
She also refuted speculation that the dinner diplomacy was aimed to float a prime ministerial candidate for the Third Front, saying: “There will be no discussion on a prime ministerial candidate or pre-poll alliances, all that will be after the polls.”
The BSP chief, who is known to be a keen contender for the country’s top job, was silent on her own prime ministerial ambitions.
Declining to comment about her prime ministerial candidature, Mayawati said: “We will decide this after the election results.”
“BSP believes in doing much and talking less… we hope to get good results in these elections.”
“We (the BSP and the Third Front) will fight elections separately. And we will join together to keep both the BJP and the Congress out of power,” Mayawati said while releasing the party’s election appeal.
She also expressed the hope that the Left parties would help the BSP to keep the Congress and BJP away from power.
She clarified that Sunday’s dinner meeting with leaders of the Third Front was part of the house warming ceremony of her new address in the capital and had no political connotation.
She said her party would soon announce the seats it would contest.
Attacking the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the BSP supremo said: “We must not allow the same party to return to power.”
Recalling Kanshi Ram’s dream of the BSP coming to power at the centre, she said: “Our party is an alternative to the BJP and Congress.”
“For the past 61 years, nobody has thought about the economic position of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. But our party always stood for their cause.”
Commenting on her birthday celebrations that invited controversy, Mayawati said: “Every political party tries to cash in on this opportunity against us, but it has in turn benefited us a lot as the funds collected on the occasion are used for the welfare of the poor.”
She said the BSP would not release any manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls and the party’s policies and programmes would be framed after the elections.