Mayawati,Bhajan Lal to jointly contest Haryana Assembly polls

Mayawati also announced that HJCP president Kuldeep Bisnoi will be projected as the chief ministerial candidate.

A BSP leader belonging to the Scheduled Castes community will be selected as the deputy chief minister in case the coalition is successful in forming the government,she added.

Substantiating her plea for a long political understanding with HJCP,Mayawati said the two parties will jointly contest the next Lok Sabha elections in Haryana.

“Haryana has 10 Lok Sabha seats and the BSP will contest six,” she said.

The chief minister hoped that the alliance will give a suitable option to Haryana voters. “We would sweep the Assembly polls,” she said and hoped that the BSP-HJCP combine will get absolute majority.

Mayawati’s decision to enter into an alliance with the HJCP has come as her first step to counter the Congress outside Uttar Pradesh. “Bhajan Lalji had deserted the Congress because of the party’s wrong policies,” she claimed.

Kuldeep Bisnoi,meanwhile,said the coalition was in the interest of the people of Haryana.

When asked about his association with the NDA,Bisnoi said: “At the time of the trust vote over the nuclear deal issue,I had attended the dinner party hosted by NDA leaders. But had made it clear that I was not a part of the NDA,” he said.

According to sources,HJCP had tried to enter into an alliance with the BSP to contest the last Lok Sabha elections. “But Mayawati was determined to contest on her own,” a source said. She,however,had realised her mistake after BSP’s poll debacle.

“Though the BSP’s vote percentage increased by over 10 per cent in Haryana,still,it could not win a single seat,” the source added.

Speaking to The Indian Express,BSP national general secretary Maan Singh Manhera said: “It is a new beginning in Haryana politics. Our alliance will signal the end of the Congress rule in the state.”