Bharat Rashtra Samithi led by former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who was planning to turn the tables on the Congress party by entering into an electoral alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party to attract Dalits ahead of Lok Sabha elections, received a rude shock on Saturday.
BSP national president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati declared that her party would be contesting the Lok Sabha elections on its own, without any alliance with any political party in any state, including INDIA block or a proposed third front of regional parties.
“We are going to face the coming elections on our own strength and power. We have no alliance with any political party anywhere in the country. I request the media not to highlight any such news,” she said in a statement.
The statement is obviously a setback to the BRS chief who announced that his party joined hands with BSP to fight the coming elections together.
Telangana BSP president and former IPS officer R S Praveen Kumar met KCR last week and declared that the BSP and BRS would fight the election together.
KCR even claimed that he had a talk with Mayawati before entering into the alliance with the BSP.
There was a talk that the BSP will ask for a couple of Lok Sabha seats from BRS, particularly Nagarkurnool and Peddapalli. Praveen Kumar himself was said to be planning to contest from Nagarkurnool.
While the retired IPS officer was hoping to win the LS polls with the BRS support, KCR was hoping that the alliance with the BSP would bring the Dalit community towards the BRS in the elections.
However, with Mayawati making the statement on Saturday, both KCR and Praveen Kumar had to face a big embarrassment.
Now, it remains to be seen whether Praveen Kumar will withdraw from the alliance or quit the BSP to join the BRS for Nagarkurnool seat.