BSP will not participate in Lalu Prasad's anti-BJP rally in Patna: Mayawati

BSP president Mayawati on Thursday said that though her party is a votary of unity among secular parties, it will not take part in RJD president Lalu Prasad's Patna rally against BJP on Sunday.

"BSP has clearly told the RJD that it will share the dais with any regional or national party only when it is decided beforehand on how many seats will go to which party in the secular alliance...Before finalising any secular programme the policy and principle of seat sharing should be decided (first) as the life of an alliance is dependent on it and all should get respectable number of seats," she told newspersons here.

The RJD chief is criss-crossing Bihar to mobilise people for the August 27 rally, which he has claimed would be a major occasion to bring together the secular forces on one platform against the BJP ahead of the 2019 polls.

Lalu is attempting a major show of strength after he was ousted from the Bihar government with the JD-U moving out of the grand alliance and joining back the NDA fold and the government with the BJP.

"If the issue of seat sharing is decided beforehand, it will save the mutual distrust at the last minute as also the trust of the people will be kept intact...Then it will not be difficult to defeat the BJP," she said.

The BSP president said that her party has always supported unity among secular parties and has also taken steps against "the BJP and company and RSS and their communal and casteist mentality".

"As far as the issue of taking part in the Patna rally is concerned, BSP's concern is that there should be no distrust among the people and there is no tiff between the secular parties on the issue of seat sharing even if this rally turns out to be a success...There are cases of back stabbing in the past and it must be ensure that eventually the BJP does not gain from it," she said.

"BSP is not against the joint struggle or alliance between secular parties but all this need to be carried out with good intentions and full honesty...The experience of last Assembly election in Bihar proved how some parties had parted ways at the last time over seat sharing," she said.

The former chief minister said that BSP never compromises on self-respect, and enters into an understanding only when it feels that it is getting a respectable number of seats.

"Presently BJP and company is in government in the state and at the Centre and will use all tactics to defame secular opposition parties or weaken them also by misusing government machinery...The EC is also wary of their anti-democratic stance to win elections," Mayawati said.

Under such circumstances, she said, opposition parties need to chalk out concrete strategy to defeat BJP so that the confidence of the people can be won over again and for this seat adjustment is the most important thing failing which alliances are disintegrated at election time.

"...This also breaks peoples trust and give a wrong message to people and only result in BJP making electoral gains," she said.

Keeping these facts in mind, BSP is very alert and think seriously and many times on the issue of sharing dais with any secular party as a result of which there will not be any participation of BSP in the Patna rally, she said.

She said BSP also welcomes the Supreme Court decision on right to privacy as a fundamental right. The historic verdict will strengthen democracy and the Constitution.

At the same time the SC decision is also a warning for the Modi government to use its mandate for peoples welfare and not force things on people by acting in an autocratic manner, she added.