New Delhi: Bahujan Samaj Party supremo and four-time chief minister of Uttar Pradesh has lost interest in the Lok Sabha elections as she is more concerned with upsetting the candidature of Congress and Samajwadi Party and giving advantage to the BJP since her focus is now on the Assembly polls in 2027.
She wants to reserve her resources and strength and regroup the party for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. The first and foremost indication of this came to light on Tuesday (May 7) when Mayawati took her nephew and politial heir Akash Anand off the campaign for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, finding him "immature" in just five months of designating him as the BSP's national coordinator and her political successor.
It is believed Akash’s lack of restraint and no-holds-barred attack on the BJP while campaigning for BSP's Sitapur Lok Sabha candidate on April 28 enraged Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who persuaded Mayawati to better keep him off the campaign now.
An FIR registered by Sitapur Police against Akash said he had called the Modi government at the Centre as "a government of terrorists. Mayawati's loss of interest in the Lok Sabha polls also stems from her inability to hold her flock of MPs together as some of her MPs crossed over to other parties while she doors to others, including Kunwar Danish Ali, who is contesting from Amroha on the Congress ticket this time.
The BSP’s withdrawal of its candidate from the Jaunpur parliamentary seat to make the fight winnable for the BJP is another sign that winning the Lok Sabha polls is not Mayawati's priority. In a move overnight, she replaced Shrikala Singh, wife of jailed strongman Dhananjay Singh as the Jaunpur candidate with sitting MP Shyam Singh Yadav for the May 25 polls on Amit Shah's advice that it would be disadvantage to former Maharashtra Minister Kripa Shankar Singh fielded by the BJP since he and Shrikala are both Thakurs. After Mayawati replaced Shrikala with Shyam Singh Yadav as he may attract the SP's votes that could have otherwise gone to the SP's Babu Singh Kushwaha.
