BSP-SP alliance had handed down a humiliating defeat to the ruling BJP in the Lok Sabha by-polls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur in March this year.
Caravan News
LUCKNOW: The central government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has handed over the CBI an old case of alleged corruption against former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati amidst the news that her Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party are stitching a formidable alliance against BJP for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
BSP-SP alliance had handed down a humiliating defeat to the ruling BJP in the Lok Sabha by-polls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur in March this year.While the Gorakhpur seat was with BJP for about quarter century as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath won it for five consecutive terms, Phulpur seat was won by his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. It is said that if the BSP-SP alliance remains intact, BJP will lose 25-30 Lok Sabha seats in the polls due early next year.
On Monday, Mayawati herself said that her party’s alliance with Samajwadi Party was on for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and a formal announcement would be made once the seat-sharing arrangement was finalised.
“A declaration has to be made and it will be done once we work out the seat-sharing arrangement. There is still time for Lok Sabha elections and we will work it out closer to the polls,” former UP CM and BSP supremo Mayawati told NDTV. She added that people were already aware of the SP-BSP alliance though no formal announcement had been made yet.
Mayawati has also reportedly asked her party cadres to work for SP and RLD candidates to defeat BJP in the forthcoming Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur Assembly by-polls.
But later in the day on Monday, news came that CBI has taken over the case of sale of 21 state-owned sugar mills during the regime of Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh (2007-2012), which had allegedly caused a loss of Rs 1,179 crore to the state government.
According to media reports, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had referred the alleged ‘scam’ to the CBI on April 12.
