Lucknow: In a clear sign that the Mahagathbandan is breaking up the BSP and SP leaders are accusing each other for the devastating poll defeat in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Earlier, BSP supremo, Mayawati, had blamed Akhilesh Yadav and the SP for losing the battle of Uttar Pradesh in the elections. She had said that the SP had failed to consolidate the Yadav votes to the Mahagathbandan.
In response, Hari Om Yadav, SP leader and close relative of Mulayam Singh Yadav, said that the mahagathbandan spelled the doom for Akilesh Yadav. He also took offence against Mayawati for saying that Yadavas did not vote for mahagathbandan.
Hari Om Yadav said that if SP had contested alone then it would have got 25 seats and the BSP would not have received a single seat. He said that Yadavas are the most loyal and disputed Mayawati’s claim that Yadava votes were not consolidated.
Instead, he said that it was the votes of Mayawati’s BSP that went to the BJP and that was the reason that the alliance could not do well.
Reports say that in a BSP review meeting, Mayawati said that the failure in the elections were due to Akhilesh Yadav’s failure to consolidate his party’s core Yadav votes for the alliance. She said that the 10 seats won by BSP were due to its traditional votes.
The BJP had crushed the mahagathbandan in the Lok Sabha elections by gaining 62 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. The much hyped SP-BSP alliance could not stand against the onslaught of Narendra Modi. While SP-BSP tried to divide the voters on the basis of caste and religion, Modi was able to transcend the confines of caste and religion and place instead the message of development and nationalism.
Though, Congress was not part of the alliance, the SP-BSP alliance did not field candidates in the Congress bastions of Rae Bairelly and Amethi. Surprisingly, Rahul Gandhi lost to Smrithi Irani in Amethi by a margin of more than 54,000 votes.
