All is well, we will remain with Mayawati: BSP MLAs in MP

Bhopal, September 19

Days after all six legislators of the BSP joined the ruling Congress in Rajasthan, the Mayawati-led party’s two MLAs in Madhya Pradesh have asserted that they will remain loyal to their party chief and not switch sides.

The two Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs--Sanjeev Singh Kushwaha and Rambai Singh--are supporting the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, where the ruling party has a wafer-thin majority in the 230-member Assembly.

On Monday, the BSP had a major setback when all its six MLAs in Rajasthan wrote to Assembly Speaker CP Joshi to merge the legislature party with the Congress.

However, the BSP MLAs in MP on Wednesday assured that they were not going to quit the party.

Kushwaha and Singh told PTI that they are with their party leader Mayawati and would remain with her in future too.

“All is well here (in Madhya Pradesh). There is no problem,” Kushwaha said.

Asked whether he might also change loyalty like the BSP MLAs in Rajasthan, Kushwaha said if he wanted to join the Congress, he would do it with pomp and show.

“There is nothing like that now. Nor I am going to join (the Congress) in future,” he asserted.

On whether any directive has come to them from the party chief after the Rajasthan episode, Kushwaha said, “Mayawatiji hasn’t told us anything. I am with the party.”

Asked if he and Singh had sought Cabinet berth in the past in MP, Kushwaha replied in the negative.

“I am with Mayawatiji and will remain with her. We are powerful in MP because of Mayawatiji. I won the election on the BSP ticket and will remain loyal to it,” Singh said.

Following the state polls last year, the Congress, which has 114 MLAs in the 230-member Assembly, is two short of the simple majority mark of 116.

It has the support of two MLAs of the BSP, one of the Samajwadi Party and four Independents.

The BJP won 109 seats and one of its MLAs later resigned after getting elected to the Lok Sabha.

In July, two BJP MLAs backed the Congress-led state government during voting on a bill in the Assembly. PTI