New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday extended his wishes to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president and former state CM Mayawati on her birthday.
In a post on X, the UP CM said, "Hearty congratulations to National President of Bahujan Samaj Party, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati ji on her birthday!"
"I pray to God for good health and long life for you," he added.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also congratuled the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister on her birthday.
"Called former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati ji and congratulated her on her birthday. I wish her good health and long life" the Defence Minister said in his post on X.
Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav also extended his wishes to the BSP chief. "Happy birthday to former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and National President of BSP, Mayawati," Yadav said in a post on X in Hindi.
Mayawati is a four-time Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Kanshi Ram included her as a member of his team when he founded the BSP in 1984. She was first elected to the Parliament in 1989. She won her first term as the CM in 1995, becoming the first Dalit woman to hold the position. The coming Lok Sabha polls next year will be crucial for the BSP which has been unable to make a mark in the last Lok Sabha polls and the state assembly elections. In the 2022 assembly elections, the party polled only 12.8 per cent votes, its lowest in almost three decades. However, Mayawati on Monday reiterated her party's stand for the 2024 Lok Sabha election and said that her party will contest the polls alone.
Addressing a press conference here, the BSP chief said that her party may consider about alliance once the elections are over.
"I want to clarify that our party (BSP) will go solo in the upcoming (2024) Lok Sabha polls. With the backing of people from backward communities, Dalits, tribals and Muslims, we had formed a full majority government in UP in 2007, and that's why we have decided to contest the Lok Sabha polls alone. We will maintain a distance from those who are casteist and believe in communalism, and we will not join any alliance," she said. —ANI
