BSP says Muslims in Uttarakhand made a mistake

Lucknow: On Sunday, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) said that even though they put in their best efforts to defeat the BJP, they won because Muslims voted for the wrong candidate.

In Lucknow, party leaders and party workers from the Uttarakhand unit met with party president Mayawati and reached this conclusion.

"It was found during the review (meeting) that like Uttar Pradesh, in Uttarakhand too, a lot of effort was put in to defeat the ruling BJP but especially the people of the Muslim community made a mistake in choosing the right alternative. Due to this, despite the strong resentment among people against the BJP on issues like poverty, inflation, unemployment and its arrogant and autocratic attitude, the BJP benefitted again," the BSP statement said.

"It was also felt at the meeting that if the attitude of these people does not change in future, then it will be very difficult to resolve the problem," the statement added.

Among the 70 members of the Uttarakhand Assembly, the BSP won only two seats and received only 4.82 per cent of the votes.

BJP won 47 seats in the hill states, which historically voted out every previous government.

Mayawati said it is important to remember that the BSP's opponents use financial power and are adept at doing dirty politics.

Furthermore, she encouraged party workers not to be discouraged by the election results and work to address the shortcomings.