The last word, perhaps, is not heard from BSP leader Mayawati. Her announcement in an emphatic manner about abandoning a planned alliance with the Congress for the 2019 General Elections — as also for assembly polls before that in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — has understandably embarrassed the Congress party. The Mahagathbandhan dream, for now, has turned sour. Worse, it turned sour immediately after the Wardha bombast. Nurtured with great hope after the cobbling of the JDS-Congress alliance government in Karnataka in May this year, the grand alliance was aimed at a united fight against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP principally in ways as to grab power in New Delhi 2019. It would now appear that, Mayawati is hoping to take on both the Congress and the BJP by forming a third front, and project herself as the PM nominee. She’s hoping to get a few regional parties to her side, but it’s as yet premature to say who stands with whom as the election scenario unfolds – first for the few state assemblies and then for the Lok Sabha.
The Congress has apparently hurt her ego by offering as few as 10 to 12 seats in Rajasthan, a little more in MP and five in Chhattisgarh. Feelings are that the BSP is no great shakes in states outside of UP. Granted that there’s a Dalit consolidation in her favour following the cases of attacks on them by cow vigilantes and others, she might still not be strong enough to demand too many seats in states other than UP. As Mayawati had proven time and again in the past, she’s open to new propositions till the last minute.
Likely, she’s throwing a tantrum to win the maximum number of seats from the Congress. This is mainly because the Congress dream of defeating the BJP in the next Lok Sabha polls will be virtually difficult if Mayawati stood apart from the proposed grand anti-BJP alliance in one key state –UP– that has as high as 80 Lok Sabha seats. The Congress might, thus, be willing to give the BSP more seats in various northern states where Mayawati claims to have commendable support. Either way, after the polls, what stand Mayawati would take is anybody’s guess. She would, first and foremost, try to grab the PM chair if no single party has the majority to form a government. So with Mamata Banerjee too. That much is certain.