As BSP fails to win a single Lok Sabha seat, why Mayawati is upset with Muslims

A day after the results of the Lok Sabha polls were declared, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati appeared to blame Muslims for her party’s worst-ever performance in the Lok Sabha elections.

“Muslim community has not been able to understand the BSP despite that party giving them adequate representation in the past several elections. In this situation, the party will give an opportunity to them in future elections thoughtfully (kaafi soch samajhkar) so that the party does not suffer a terrible loss like this election in future,” Mayawati said in a statement.

Her outburst was driven by the Muslim community’s overwhelming choice of the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance to defeat the BJP. This upset the BSP leadership as Muslims did not vote for the party despite it giving the most tickets to Muslims in the state (19) and across the country (37).

All 19 Muslim candidates fielded by the BSP in UP lost, finishing in the third position, while its competitors for Muslim votes, the SP, won 12 of these seats, and the Congress one. The BJP won the remaining six seats. The last time the BSP fielded 19 Muslims in the Lok Sabha polls was in 2014. Then too, it had lost all 19 seats.

When Mayawati fielded so many Muslim candidates in UP, other Opposition parties accused the BSP of working as the BJP’s “B Team” alleging that her motive was to dent the SP’s votes and help the BJP.

Mayawati had blamed Muslims for her party’s defeat after the 2022 UP Assembly polls too when the party’s vote share fell to 12.88%. At the time, the BSP fielded 88 Muslim candidates, none of whom won. The BSP won just one Assembly seat in that election. At the time too, a majority of Muslims voted for an SP-led alliance.

At the time, Mayawati said the SP and the