Lucknow: Cautioning Muslims to be on the guard against the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati today (Apr 17, 2004) said that the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's statement drawing parallels between the SP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) proved that the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government in Uttar Pradesh was installed with the help of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The Prime Minister's recent statement that ideologically the SP was quite close to BJP had proved beyond any doubt that NDA had helped Yadav in forming the coalition Government in the State, she said.

Elections 2004-The Drama unfolds...
Political Parties in India

"Muslims should not support the SP in the elections if they want to weaken communal forces," Mayawati said.

Terming the pre-poll surveys projecting BSP in poor light as "politically motivated", she claimed that her party was poised to make major gains in the Lok Sabha elections. "The poll surveys and opinion polls are showing BSP in poor light but the ground realities in the State are totally different."

Mayawati, who addressed election rallies in 31 of the 32 constituencies in the State going to polls in the first phase of elections on April 26, said her assessment was that the party would make major gains in the first phase itself.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, the poll surveys had predicted four seats for the BSP which went on to win 14 seats, she said, adding her party had been making gains in terms of vote percentage and number of seats in every election and the coming polls would be no exception.

To a question on the post-poll scenario in case of a hung Parliament, Mayawati ruled out joining hands with the BJP.

"We will take a decision keeping the interest of the Bahujan Samaj in mind," she added.