The Hindu : BSP not engineering splits: Mayawati

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 26, 2003

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BSP not engineering splits: Mayawati

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 25. Buoyed by the success of the Bahujan Samaj Party in the bypoll to the Chiraigoan Assembly seat, the party leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, today said the result disproved the Opposition claim that her Government's popularity was on the wane.

Ms. Mayawati said besides this seat, which was won by the Samajwadi Party earlier, the BSP had won all the by-elections that were held since the coalition Government came to power.

She also ridiculed the Opposition for having ``boasted'' that her Government had lost majority after the Rashtriya Lok Dal had withdrawn support last month.

``The Opposition said they would go to the people's court after having failed to prove to the Governor that they had the numbers. The people's verdict is now out,'' she said.

She said the BSP had 98 members when the coalition Government proved its majority and since then the party has added 14 MLAs, seven of whom came from the Congress, two from Apna Dal, one nominated, one Jan BSP and three seats which the BSP bagged through by-elections. The bypoll results also set aside the theory that the Thakurs and Muslims had distanced themselves from the BSP.

While asserting that the two dozen Samajwadi Party MLAs were willing to support her Government, she said the BSP was not in favour of engineering splits. On the other hand, all those who joined the BSP from other parties did so after having floated separate parties and then merged them with the BSP, she said.

On the Taj corridor controversy, she reiterated that the matter was under investigation and that it would not be prudent for her to offer any comment on it.

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