London, Sept 29: Describing the past alliance with the BJP in UP as a "mistake", the Bahujan Samaj Party has said that it "sacrificed power" and "kicked the BJP" instead of yielding to its pressure on the Ayodhya issue. "I have no hesitation in saying that the alliance with the BJP was a mistake...When BJP wanted to pressurise the government (in UP) on the Ayodhya issue, we walked out of the government," Rashid Alvi, leader of BSP in Parliament and party spokesman said.
"There has to be sincerity of purpose for an alliance to work. When this looked impossible, we decided to sacrifice power, and we kicked the BJP," Alvi said while participating in a BBC Hindi special programme. Answering a question on future prospects of the two parties aligning again, the BSP leader said, "The question does not arise. BSP will not go with the BJP again, and there is no question of any alliance between the BJP and the BSP."
Asked whether it was not sheer opportunism on the part of BSP to have aligned with bjp after fighting the elections against it, Alvi said, "In politics, there are two ways of destroying the evil - by making friends with it and then striking, and the second by declaring enmity.” "We made friends with the BJP and today minorities of this country will appreciate that we have considerably weakened the BJP," he said. Bureau Report