BSP to end INLD bandhan

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 8

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has finally decided to snap its 10-month-old ties with the Indian National Lok Dal following the Jind bypoll, where the latter’s candidate fared very poorly and lost his security deposit despite the alliance.

Prakash Bharti, state president of the BSP, confirmed that the party had taken a call to end ties with the INLD and the final announcement would be made at a press conference in Chandigarh on Saturday.

He said BSP supremo Mayawati had on Monday made it clear that when the party entered into an alliance with the INLD, the Chautala clan was united. She had also observed that though the INLD was no longer the same political force that it was at the time of the alliance, the BSP could still continue with the tie-up if members of the Chautala family could unite.

“But there appear to be no signs of any rapprochement and our party cannot wait for long,” Bharti said.

Asked whether Mayawati could enter into an alliance with the JJP by snapping ties with the INLD, Bharti said he was not ruling out any possibilities as the BSP wanted to team up with political parties which could defeat the BJP.

Following the INLD’s humiliating defeat in the byelection to the Jind Assembly seat on January 28, the BSP had on Monday indicated that it might break the alliance it had forged with the party for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

The INLD and the BSP had formed an alliance in April last year, much before the rift in the Chautala clan which led to launching of the JJP by Abhay Chautala’s elder brother Ajay Chautala’s sons Dushyant and Digvijay.

In the Jind bypoll, while JJP candidate Digvijay had polled 37,631 votes and stood second after the BJP’s Krishan Middha, INLD candidate Umed Redhu could get just 3,454 votes and forfeited his deposit.