Mayawati pins blame on Muslims for rout in LS polls: ‘Community has not understood the BSP’

In the Lok Sabha elections 2024, the BSP’s vote share dipped to 2.04 per cent nationally and 9.39 per cent in UP — in an indication that the party got the votes of only Jatav and Dalits in the state where the SP-Congress alliance won the majority of the seats.

Calling Muslims an important part of the BSP, Mayawati said in a statement in Hindi, “Muslim community has not been able to understand the BSP despite that party giving them adequate representation in the past several elections. In this situation, the party will give an opportunity to them in future elections thoughtfully (kaafi sonch samajhkar) so that the party does not suffer a terrible loss like this election in future.”

In the Lok Sabha elections 2024, the BSP fielded the maximum number of Muslim candidates across the country — 35 — in a bid to broaden her support base with a combination of Dalits and Muslim votes. Muslims constitute about 20 per cent of the population in UP and Dalits form 21 per cent of the population. In UP, the BSP had fielded 17 Muslim candidates and none of them could even reach the runners-up position.

Mayawati claimed that the majority of Dalits — especially her community (Jatav) — polled their votes in favour of the BSP, and she expressed gratitude to them for their support. She said the party will take the Lok Sabha results in UP seriously, analyse it at every level, and take every possible step in the interest of the party and movement.

Mayawati added the Lok Sabha elections were not supposed to be stretched to seven phases and it should have been completed in a maximum of four phases. She also said the election was affected by the scorching sun and hot weather conditions which resulted in a decline in voter turnout.