BSP should respect Congress before demanding for seats: UPCC

A day after Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati underscored that her party would go for alliance only if it got "respectable" share of seats, the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) has hit back at the BSP.

The UPCC stated that the BSP should not overlook the fact that Congress is a national party and the biggest political organisation. UPCC's media head Rajiv Bakshi on Monday underscored that while the BSP does not have any seats in the Lok Sabha at present, the Congress has 44 members of Parliament. It is a big enough reason for the BSP to be mindful before demanding honurable number of seats, asserted Bakshi.

Mayawati on Sunday said, "Our party is not against the alliance, but our stand is very clear - that we will ally with a political party only if we get a respectable share of seats. Otherwise, our party feels it better to contest the elections alone," she said.

Senior BSP leaders have reportedly pushed for the Congress to share more seats in the upcoming state assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh for an alliance and in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

However, according Bakshi, the Congress is capable enough to win at least 25 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP on its own. In fact, Bakshi added, contesting elections without any alliance would uplift the morale of the party workers, and the party's top leadership was also in favour of such a move.