New Delhi:
Two days after the Bahujan Samaj Party registered its lowest ever tally of only one seat in the current Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, party chief Mayawati blamed the "casteist agenda" of the media, and announced her party would boycott TV debates
In a series of tweets, Mayawati claimed the media's attitude hurt the party's chances in the elections.
"The work done by the media during the UP assembly elections to harm the Ambedkarite BSP movement by adopting casteist hatred and hateful attitude in the direction of their bosses is not hidden from anyone," Mayawati said on Twitter.
On Friday, Mayawati had said it was the media's aggressive propaganda showing the BSP as the "B team of the BJP" that drove away Muslims and anti-BJP voters from it.
The 66-year-old leader said that UP election results were opposite to the expectations of the BSP.
"UP election results are opposed to BSP's expectations. We should not be discouraged by it. Instead, we should learn from it, introspect and carry forward our party movement, and come back to power," she said.
She cited the examples of BJP and Congress who had built on their respective party bases after their poll defeats and went on to form governments in Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP has retained power in Uttar Pradesh by winning 255 out of 403 constituencies, securing a 41.29 per cent vote share.
This is the first time in 37 years that a party (BJP) has been able to retain power in Uttar Pradesh after completing a full term. Narayan Dutt Tiwari in 1985 had secured two consecutive terms in the state.
Notably, BJP came to power in 2000 in Uttar Pradesh, but could not hold its government even for a year when Rajnath Singh was UP chief minister. Since then, the BJP could not come to power, and the state was ruled by the Samajwadi Party and BSP separately till 2017.