BSP-JCC announce alliance for Chhattisgarh polls

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Thursday announced an alliance with the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) for the upcoming Chhattisgarh state assembly elections. JCC president Ajit Jogi has been nominated as the Chief Ministerial candidate.

Addressing a press conference, Mayawati said, "With elections impending in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, a lot of rumours about BSP have been doing the rounds in the media regarding an alliance for the elections in these states. I have always said that we will form an alliance with a party that gives us a respectable number of seats."

"Another criteria for the alliance was an alignment in our ideals, we wanted to form the alliance with a party that wants to help the poor, Dalits and other people from backward sections of society. After a lot of thought, we decided to ally with Amit Jogi's Janata Congress Chhattisgarh party, not only because he has a strong political standing in the state but also for the work he has done for the poor," the BSP chief added.

Out of the 90 seats in the Chhattisgarh Assembly, the BSP will contest on 35, while the JCC will contest on the remaining 55 seats, Mayawati confirmed.

"This alliance is fully capable of stopping the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). However, there will be other regional parties in the state that will want to contest with us, we will take their support as well," Mayawati added.

She further aimed a dig at the BJP-led government in the state, saying, "They have been ruling the state for the last 15 years and have done nothing for the state. They make big announcements, but the ground reality is - nothing has been done for the people from backward sections of society in the state."

Meanwhile, Jogi expressed also his gratitude towards Mayawati and hit out at the BJP government in the state.

"BJP has been ruling the state for 15 years. They have been misusing power, money, their post, the administrative system. But now that we have formed this alliance, we will definitely put an end to them," Jogi said.

The aforementioned announcement comes at a time, when a BSP-Congress alliance was being predicted.

However, Congress leader Raj Babbar refuted rumours that the BSP-JCC alliance in Chhattisgarh signaled an end for the prospects of a BSP-Congress alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

"The metrics for Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha elections are very different. Vidhan Sabha elections are for the state, whereas Lok Sabha elections are for the country. When the Lok Sabha elections come around, the situation regarding the alliance will be very different," Babbar said.