Parties like SP, BSP, RJD will shut shop by 2020: Paswan

BJP ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan took a jibe at the opposition on Tuesday after BSP supremo Mayawati announced that her party will not contest the Uttar Pradesh Assembly bypolls in a tie-up with the SP, saying its alliances in every state will crumble in the days ahead and "parties like the SP, the BSP and the RJD will have to shut their shops by 2020".

The LJP president said the parting of ways between the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) was inevitable as it was never a "gathbandhan" (alliance) but a "lathbandhan" (a tie-up to fight each other).

"The coalition has disappeared in Uttar Pradesh, is disappearing in Bihar and will disappear across the country. Parties like the SP, the BSP and the RJD will have to shut their shops by 2020," the Dalit leader said, adding that he had been saying that the opposition alliance in Uttar Pradesh will fall apart after the Lok Sabha polls.

Mayawati's announcement came after the SP-BSP-RLD alliance failed to stop the saffron march in the most politically crucial state of the country in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls and could win only 15 of its 80 seats.