BSP won’t contest zila panchayat chief polls, focus is on Assembly polls: Mayawati

Two days after the last date of filing of nomination papers for 75 zila panchayat chairperson posts in Uttar Pradesh, BSP chief Mayawati on Monday said that her party would not contest the elections, alleging “misuse of government machinery” and “fraud” in the ongoing election process. Instead, her party would focus on the next year’s Assembly elections in the state, she added.

“The BSP has taken the decision not to contest the ongoing zila panchayat chairperson elections in Uttar Pradesh… Instead of wasting their time and energy in the Zila panchayat chief polls, party workers have been directed to use their energy in strengthening the organisation and spreading the party’s base of the party among “sarva samaj”, so that in the upcoming Assembly elections, BSP can form the government,” she said.

“Once the BSP forms its government in the state, the majority of the zila panchayat chairman themselves will join the BSP as they cannot function without power. We have kept this fact in mind and so decided not to contest the election,” she added.

Alleging misuse of state machinery in the polls, she said the BJP was using the same tactics that were used by the earlier Samajwadi Party government.

The former chief minister claimed that during the BSP government, there had never been any fraud.