Won’t let Narendra Modi become PM: Mayawati

BSP chief Mayawati has said her party will do all it can to stop Narendra Modi from becoming the Prime Minister.

In an interview to The Indian Express on Saturday, Mayawati made light of a section of BJP's attempts to project Modi as the PM candidate by highlighting the absence of communal strife in Gujarat in the past 10 years of his rule. "But post-Godhra riots cases are still being inquired into," she said to a question on BJP's bid to project Modi for PM.

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On Sunday, she again invoked the 2002 post-Godhra riots to assert that the BSP will never let Modi become the PM. "BJP is dreaming of making Modi the PM. My party will never let their dream succeed at any cost. Especially, it will never let this kind of person, who strengthened communal forces after the Godhra episode in Gujarat, become the PM," said a press statement issued in her name by the BSP central office here.

She asserted that BSP will not extend support to BJP if it backs Modi for the post.

Mayawati's unprovoked attack on Modi holds significance in the wake of BJP's defeat in Himachal Pradesh, which reflected poorly on the saffron party's capacity to ride anti-Congress plank without alliances in the next Lok Sabha elections.

"Our defeat in Himachal exposed our vulnerability to go it alone in the next elections. For us, it is also a lesson that the party will have to strike alliances for the next Lok Sabha polls," said a BJP leader. "Even in Punjab, which went to polls earlier this year, it was Akali Dal's performance that got NDA re-elected. Similarly, we cannot hope to ditch alliance with Nitish Kumar in Bihar."

Given Nitish's reluctance to agree to BJP projecting Modi as NDA's PM candidate, Mayawati's attack is a setback for the section of BJP which is keen to get Modi projected as the PM candidate.

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