Mayawati: BSP will contest polls on its own

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Tuesday said that her party will contest on its own in the upcoming state elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand as well as byelections in nine assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh.

In a series of posts on X in Hindi, Mayawati welcomed the announcement of the poll schedule and said it is the responsibility of the Election Commission to ensure that the elections are held in the shortest possible time and are free from the curse of money and muscle power.

"The BSP will contest elections alone in both these states...," she said, adding it is to ensure that its people remain united and strive to come to power as part of their mission to protect dignity and self-respect inspired by BR Ambedkar.

"The BSP will field its candidates in the by-elections being held on nine assembly seats in UP and will fight this election on its own strength with full preparation and vigour," the former chief minister said in another post.

Assembly polls in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on November 20. In Jharkhand, elections will be held in two phases on November 13 and 20, the Election Commission announced on Tuesday.

Voting in the bypolls will be held on November 13. The counting of votes will be held on November 23.

The Election Commission announced the bypolls for nine of the 10 vacant seats of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. It did not announce bypolls in the Milkipur seat of Ayodhya district due to pending election petition.

All the seats except Sisamau fell vacant after their MLAs were elected as MPs in the Lok Sabha polls. In Sisamau, SP MLA Irfan Solanki was disqualified after being convicted in a criminal case.

In the 2022 assembly polls, Sisamau, Katehari, Karhal, Milkipur and Kundarki were held by the Samajwadi Party, while the BJP had won Phulpur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan and Khair. The Meerapur seat was held by the RLD.

The Karhal seat fell vacant due to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav getting elected from Kannauj Lok Sabha constituency.