Keeping alive the will-she-won’t-she debate over an alliance with the Congress, BSP president Mayawati here today attacked the Grand Old Party. Addressing an impressive rally here, the former chief minister exhorted her supporters to ‘‘teach the Congress a lesson. They caused the defeat of Ambedkar in the 1952 elections’’. The BJP was not spared either. Charging the party with practising manuwadi politics, Mayawati said BJP leaders were the chacha-bhatijas of Congressmen. ‘‘They should go and ask the Dalits if they are feeling good or not,’’ she said, taking a dig at the NDA’s feelgood agenda. Mayawati said the BJP was using the Taj Heritage Corridor case to build pressure on her to enter into an alliance with it, but added: ‘‘I am not afraid of going to jail, but I will not succumb to BJP pressure.’’ She said her party would ally with only those parties which can transfer votes in favour of the BSP. ‘‘In all our previous alliances, our votes were transferred to our allies, it was never the other way round. This time, we will analyse how we can benefit from a particular alliance,’’ she said, without disclosing which parties could be her possible alliance partners for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. BSP leaders later conceded the only party under consideration for a tie-up is the Congress. ‘‘An alliance with the BJP is ruled out,’’ one of them said. Mayawati said she has asked her party’s state units to make an assessment of how much of the votes can be transferred to the BSP through alliances. She said most of the state units have submitted their reports and she is waiting for feedback from the rest before she can finalise the alliance. She said the BSP will contest the Lok Sabha polls in Bihar adding that by the next Assembly elections, the party will emerge as a force to contend with in the state. In the last Assembly elections, the party had won five seats, but all five elected legislators defected to the RJD later.
