Mayawati doesn't want to go to Rajya Sabha till the BJP is in majority, claimed Tejashwi Yadav
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has declined an offer made by Lalu Yadav's party - the Rashtriya Janata Dal - to get her elected to the Rajya Sabha, saying she did not wish to go to parliament till the BJP has majority in the upper house, Bihar leader Tejashwi Yadav has claimed.
The Election Commission on Friday announced that polls to 58 Rajya Sabha seats, including six in Bihar, will be held on March 23.
"As soon as notifications were issued for elections to Rajya Sabha seats, I rang up Mayawati ji and said we could send her to Rajya Sabha from our quota. She, however, denied the offer, saying I do not wish to go to Rajya Sabha till the BJP is in majority," Tejashwi Yadav, leader of opposition in Bihar Assembly, said at an event in Patna on Sunday.
RJD chief Lalu Yadav had offered to send Ms Mayawati to the upper house from Bihar in July last year after she resigned, accusing the BJP of not allowing her to raise the issue of anti-Dalit violence in Uttar Pradesh.
Reacting to the BSP chief's resignation, Lalu Yadav had said, "Today would be remembered as a black day in the history when a highly respected Dalit leader was not allowed to raise the voice of poor in the Rajya Sabha."
"If Mayawati wishes, we will send her to Rajya Sabha from Bihar," Mr Yadav whose party has 80 MLAs in 243-member Bihar Legislative Assembly had said.
Mayawati's dramatic move was seen as an attempt to consolidate her core Dalit support base and re-establish herself as the sole leader of the community after a crushing defeat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections last year. Her party could win only 18 seats with the BJP seizing power by winning more than 300 of the state's 403 seats and making major inroads into UP's significant Dalit vote.
Mayawati's party - the Bahujan Samaj Part- with just 18 MLAs in Uttar Pradesh Assemby, is not in a position to send her to Rajya Sabha.
Now that the BSP chief has declined the offer made by the Lalu Yadav's party, it seems she will not be a member of any house till next parliamentary elections.