Zee Media Bureau/Deepak Nagpal
Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Saturday appeared before the media, a day after her party faced a drubbing in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections.
But, instead of acknowledging her party`s defeat which failed to win even one seat in 2014 polls, Mayawati went on to claim that her party had done better than the 2009 elections.
“Though we did not get any seats, in Uttar Pradesh we have got more votes than we did in 2009. In terms of number of votes, we are the third largest party in India,” the BSP chief said.
Giving out the figures, Mayawati said the BSP had got 1.51 crore votes in 2009 which increased to 1.60 crores in 2014.
“We have received more votes this time than even in 2009. There has been no major impact on the votes we received. Our vote share is intact,” she said.
“BSP was unable to win in Uttar Pradesh because of division of votes among upper castes and Muslims,” Mayawati said, explaining the reasons behind her party`s poor performance.
“The verdict has shown that people voted against the UPA; the negative effect was felt by our party and others as well,” she added.
Seeking to discredit BJP`s victory, the BSP leader said, “BJP received 42% votes in UP, which means that 58% of people didn`t support the party.”
“BSP blames machinations of some parties to discredit it just before elections, especially Amit Shah`s Hindu-Muslim speeches... his inflammatory speeches affected the atmosphere,” Mayawati said.
“Upper caste votes which were to come to BSP went to BJP due to the disinformation. But Dalit community was not affected by the so-called Modi wave,” she said further, adding “I appreciate that the Dalit community has managed to protect its movement from the onslaught”.
Mayawati further alleged collusion between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, saying it was because of this that the SP did not put up any candidate in Sonia Gandhi`s Rae Bareli constituency and Rahul`s Amethi.
“Similarly, the SP won 5 seats and on 3 of those, the Congress didn`t put up candidate,” Mayawati said.
