BSP supporters voted for BJP to keep out SP, says Mayawati

BSP Supremo Mayawatihas said that Dalits, upper-caste Hindus and OBCs backed the BJP to keep out the Samajwadi Party's “jungle raj” even as the minorities’ support to the Akhilesh Yadav-led party cost her heavily in the UP polls. Mayawati on Friday said, “BSP supporters, upper-caste Hindus and several OBC communities feared that if the SP comes to power, there will be jungle raj once again and so they went to the BJP despite being fed up with the party’s policies.” She blamed the "casteist media" for driving away Muslims from her Bahujan Samaj Party.

Falling to its lowest ever tally of winning only one seat in the current Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, Mayawati said it was the media's "aggressive propaganda" showing the BSP as the "B team of the BJP" that drove away Muslims and anti-BJP voters from her party. The results mark a new low for the BSP, which contested all 403 seats. Even at its worst, the party never got less than 19% votes in the state. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when the party drew a blank, it still had a vote share of 19.77%. In the 2017 Assembly polls, when it won a mere 19 seats, the BSP’s vote share stood at 22.23%. It continued to remain in that zone when it tied up with the SP and contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, winning 10 seats.