LUCKNOW: The BSP on Sunday said that despite its best efforts to defeat the BJP in the Uttarakhand Assembly polls, the party won because Muslims chose the wrong alternative.
The BSP arrived at the conclusion at a meeting of office-bearers and workers of its Uttarakhand unit with party president Mayawati here to review its performance in the just concluded assembly polls.
"It was found during the review (meeting) that like Uttar Pradesh, in Uttarakhand too, a lot of effort was put in to defeat the ruling BJP but especially the people of the Muslim community made a mistake in choosing the right alternative.
Due to this, despite the strong resentment among people against the BJP on issues like poverty, inflation, unemployment and its arrogant and autocratic attitude, the BJP benefitted again," the BSP said in a statement.
"It was also felt at the meeting that if the attitude of these people does not change in future, then it will be very difficult to resolve the problem," it said.
The BSP won only two seats in the 70-member Uttarakhand Assembly and got a mere 4.82 per cent of the total votes.
The BJP won 47 seats.
It created history by retaining power in the hill state, where every other previous government was voted out in the past.
Referring to rival political parties, Mayawati said it should be kept in mind that the BSP's opponents use money power and are adept at doing "dirty politics".
She also asked party workers not to get demoralised by the election results and work to address the shortcomings.