Mayawati plays hard-to-get with Congress

New Delhi: The much-hyped Opposition unity hit a hurdle Tuesday as BSP supremo Mayawati made it clear that her party’s alliance with the Congress in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh was “nothing but mere speculation”, and the Congress virtually extended an olive branch, indicating it was willing to play the role of a convenor and saying the “post of Prime Minister was open”. RJD leader Tejwashi Yadav also said that “Congress president Rahul Gandhi is not the only leader from the Op-position in the race for the Prime Minister’s post”.

The Congress further signalled that it was open to any leader, including Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee or BSP supremo Mayawati, to be in the PM race as long as it stopped the BJP from returning to power.

While dalit powerhouse Mayawati huffed and puffed on Tuesday and mounted pressure on the Congress, saying her BSP was ready to go it alone in the poll-bound states and the same formula would be applied in Uttar Pradesh if the party didn’t get a “respectable number of seats”, the Congress sounded somewhat hopeful and claimed the “basic architecture of the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar alliance is in place”. The Congress, however, was not ready to discuss the specifics of the seat-sharing formula at this juncture.

The BSP chief said: “Congress leaders are claiming an alliance has been sealed... (But) we intend to contest all seats in Madhya Pradesh, Raja-sthan and Chhattisgarh... We will not be in an alliance if we are not offered a respectable number of seats.” The former UP CM also warned the BSP would follow a similar formula in Uttar Prad-esh, making it clear her party and the Samajwadi Party would share the lion’s share of the state’s 80 seats. “The Congress should know the same condition applies to them in other states,” Ms Mayawati added.

Congress sources said the party was confident of doing well in states like Gujarat, where it expected at least 12 seats, and in Maharashtra where it has firmed up an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party. It said it was ready to work with all parties to defeat the BJP and was ready to back anyone for the post of Prime Minister.

The sources said West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s objections to the Congress leading an alliance was a non-issue as she was from the “Congress family” and would always be against the BJP and RSS. Ms Mayawati’s  statement, incidentally comes just two days after the Congress Working Committee decided to forge tactical alliances with “like-minded parties” in all states and authorised party president Rahul Gandhi to decide on these alliances. In MP, the Congress has already tied up with the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP), which has a marginal influence in the state, but could find dislodging the BJP tough without the BSP’s support. In earlier state elections, the BSP has always cut into the Congress’ votebank. Past results show the BSP played a crucial role in at least 14 districts, including Morena, Bh-ind, Datia, Shivpuri, Shivpur, Gwalior, Ashok Nagar, Tikamgarh, Chhattarpur, Panna, Satna, Rewa, Sidhi and Singrauli.

In Chhattisgarh, the BSP plays a dominant role in at least 10 seats. To put pressure on the Congress, Ms Maya-wati met former Congress leader Ajit Jogi earlier this month. Mr Jogi’s Chhattisga-rh Janata Congress is expected to cut into the Congress’ votebank. If the BSP allies with Mr Jogi’s outfit, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh could return to power for the fourth consecutive time. In Rajasthan, the Congress state unit is against any BSP alliance, and state leaders have told Mr Gandhi that the party “will get dalit votes even without aligning with the BSP in the state”.

Punjab CM Amarinder Singh said the Congress didn’t need any alliances in Punjab and would win the Lok Sabha polls hands down on its own. Capt. Singh noted that the party had won all recent elections in the state, including in Gurdaspur and Shahkot, by record margins. He pointed out that the Aam Aadmi Party had lost the support of the people in Punjab completely, and clarified that at no point had he said he was open to an alliance between the Congress and the AAP in Punjab.