LUCKNOW: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) national general secretary and party MP Satish Chandra Mishra, on Tuesday, ruled out the possibility of party chief Mayawati contesting the upcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
Mishra said even he would also not contest the UP assembly elections, however, exuded confidence that his party would get the majority to form the next government in the state.
"Behenji and I, both will not be contesting assembly elections. BSP is contesting polls in three states, including UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Behenji will lead the cadre in these elections," Mishra said.
Mishra said that his party had taken the lead over rivals in starting off its campaign by convening its first Prabuddh Varg Sammelan in Ayodhya in July, last year. He was responding to a query over the absence of Mayawati from the BSP poll campaigns.
He claimed that the Prabudhha Varg Sammelans had concluded in Lucknow and the last one was addressed by Behenji on September 7.
"On October 9, she had addressed a mammoth rally in Lucknow, which was attended by 5 lakh people from all districts," he said.
In the second phase of campaigning, Mishra said, the party held meetings in the reserved constituencies in 18 divisions and these meetings had just ended. Mishra said that the BSP had even taken a lead in announcing party candidates for the upcoming polls.
"While other parties have not even named a single candidate yet, the BSP has finalized over 300 candidates for the 403 seats assembly. These 300 candidates have also been holding meetings. ECI has said to conduct door-to-door campaign which we have been doing for several weeks already," he said.