Lucknow, May 18: The BJP today said it wanted a lion's share' of the 81 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh in next year's elections and did not foresee a clash with its ally BSP on the issue. Talking to reporters a day after meeting BJP state leaders and Chief Minister Mayawati, BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu declined to specify the number of seats the party would like to contest in next Lok Sabha polls in the state but said "we would want a lion's share' in the seat distribution."
To a question, he said he did not foresee a clash between BJP's "lion's share" and "elephant's (BSP poll symbol) share."
Naidu, however, said the issue of distribution of seats would be settled through discussion. Apparently concerned at the down slide of BJP in UP after formation of the alliance government, he said he had taken up the issues raised by BJP ministers and office bearers with Mayawati during their dinner meeting last night.
The chief minister had assured all cooperation in this regard, he said adding there was a need to improve the functioning of the two alliance partners.
Conceding the party's graph in Uttar Pradesh had witnessed a downslide, Naidu said BJP had been relegated to the third position in the last assembly polls in state two years ago. Naidu, however, rejected the suggestion that alliance with BSP had harmed BJP and proved beneficial to BSP saying, "No party would continue in an alliance unless it gets some advantage. In politics, there is no one-sided romance."
He said the three-member party committee would hold regular meetings with Mayawati to remove any misunderstanding between the two allies. Bureau Report