Respect BSP’s decision, doors open for tie-up for 2019 polls, says Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia
Jyotiraditya Scindia said the BSP has decided to go its own way in Madhya Pradesh, but the doors are still open for an alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress reached out to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati even after she decided against an alliance with the party in Madhya Pradesh earlier this month, senior Congress politician Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Tuesday.
Scindia, who heads the Congress campaign committee in Madhya Pradesh, said the BSP has decided to go its own way in the state, but the doors are still open for an alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
“We respect their (BSP’s) decision. We have no issue with that. Sometimes partnerships work out and sometimes they don’t. And when they don’t, that doesn’t mean your doors are closed forever. We can meet to talk another day and we do hope to talk with her again at the time of the Lok Sabha elections,” Scindia said.
On October 3, Mayawati announced that she would not ally with the Congress in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for the upcoming state elections, after tying up wth Ajit Jogi’s Janata Congress Chhattisgarh in the tribal-dominated state.
Her statement dampened the spirits of the Opposition in taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 polls; opposition parties have pinned hope on a proposed Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) to oust the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from power at the Centre.
While making the announcement about Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the BSP supremo praised both Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi for their “honest intentions” on the alliance, but blamed other Congress leaders such as Digvijaya Singh for “sabotaging” the tie-up.
Earlier this month, Congress president Rahul Gandhi also said that he felt the two parties would come together for next year’s general elections.
Now, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) – the other two key allies of the Congress – besides the Gondwana Gantantra Party have decided to contest the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh separately.
Asked if this meant more trouble for the Congress, Scindia replied, “First of all, it is too premature to say that all these parties have decided to contest the elections on their own. We are still in conversation with them.”
He added that if alliances did not work out this time, these could be firmed up in the Lok Sabha elections. “We respect our alliance partners. We believe that they provide tremendous amount of value on their own planks and based on that we will take the conversation forward in the 2019 elections,” said Scindia, who represents the Guna parliamentary seat in the Lok Sabha.
Asked if the Congress leadership should seek to clear the confusion over the leadership issue by announcing the chief ministerial candidate in Madhya Pradesh as the party had done in some states in the past, Scindia said every state presented a different scenario, requiring a different approach.
“There are many states where the Congress party has declared its chief ministerial candidate and many states in which the BJP has. Conversely, there are many states where both the Congress and the BJP have not announced their faces. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach. The need of the hour for every single Congress worker and leader is to come together and work not to gain power but to ensure that this BJP government is ousted from Madhya Pradesh,” Scindia said.
