BSP Supremo Mayawati today ‘advised’ the Congress party to learn its lessons from the situation in Karnataka and not try to use any and every trick in the book to deride its opponents, especially if they are in the ‘secular’ camp.
Mayawati was referring to the fact that the BJP won many seats in Muslim dominated areas of Karnataka as the Congress competed with the JD(S)+BSP alliance for Muslim votes.
“I want to advise the Congress Party that it should not use language that will benefit the BJP and RSS in any political rally in any election in the future,” she said.
In her statement on the electoral outcome, she pointed out that the Congress called JD(S) BJP’s ‘B team’ in its speeches in Muslim dominated areas and split their votes.
The Congress Party ended with 78 seats in the 222-member Karnataka state legislative assembly, and was forced to take the support of the Janata Dal (Secular) and Mayawati’s own Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to cobble together a last-minute alliance.
Even though the alliance has ended up with 118 seats — well over the halfway mark of 111 — the Karnataka governor has invited the rival front led by the BJP to form the government.