Mayawati blames Akhilesh Yadav for Uttar Pradesh poll drubbing, may part ways with SP

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Monday blamed gathbandhan (alliance) with Samajwadi Party (SP) for Uttar Pradesh election result and is likely to part ways with Akhilesh Yadav's party.

Mayawati, who held a review meeting with office bearers and senior leaders of the BSP blamed Akhilesh Yadav for not being able to stop the division of Yadav votes during Lok Sabha election 2019.

According to BSP sources, Mayawati in the meeting said that Akhilesh Yadav was not even able to assure victory for his own wife Dimple Yadav. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav lost the election by over 12,000 votes in Kannauj.

Unhappy with the alliance, Mayawati is likely to dump the SP, according to news agency ANI. Her party, the BSP is likely to contest the state Assembly election alone.

The development comes after Mayawati had removed election coordinators of six states and two state presidents on Sunday, following the poor show in the Lok Sabha elections.

The BSP chief removed the coordinators of Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Odisha.

Mayawati was "very upset" with her party's performance in the Lok Sabha elections and has now blamed the Samajwadi Party for the poor poll performance. While BSP won 10 seats, SP contributed to the alliance's tally with five more seats.

On the other hand, the BJP won by a huge margin with 62 seats from India's most populous state. The Bharatiya Janata Party secured a landslide victory with 303 seats as the NDA alliance breached the 350 seat-mark in the Lok Sabha elections.

As far as Mayawati is concerned, sources claim that more changes in the party could be possible after a series of meetings.