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BSP won't join third front, says Mayawati

Bahujan Samaj Party vice-president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Friday said her party would not join the third front or any other force.

Addressing the media in Lucknow, she predicted that the Lok Sabha mid-term poll as well as the assembly election in Uttar Pradesh would be held simultaneously in February.

Mayawati attributed the landslide victory of the Congress in the recent assembly election in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to the help rendered by her party. The BSP, she continued, instead of forging an open alliance with the Congress, did not field candidates in half the number of seats and, thus, had its votes transferred to the Congress, leading to the Bharatiya Janata Party's defeat.

The BSP, however, she said, would not apply this formula in Uttar Pradesh. There, it would not have an electoral alliance with any party.

UNI

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