The Bahujan Samaj Party will go it alone in the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly election as its ideology does not match that of the Congress, BSP state president Narmada Prasad Ahirwar (in picture) said on Thursday.

Ahirwar told The Statesman that BSP was a mission-based party and was working for an equitable society while Congress and BJP have exploited Dalits and encouraged corruption.

“There is no question of an alliance with the Congress in Madhya Pradesh because the BSP is not with it anywhere in the country. And the Congress is sure to backtrack if Behanji (Mayawati) is named as prime ministrial candidate,” said Ahirwar. “Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana, Janata Dal (S) in Karnataka, Rashtriya Janta Dal in Bihar and Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh are in alliance with our party but Congress is not there,” he said.

BSP wins most seats in Gwalior-Chambal, Bundelkhand and Vindhya regions in Madhya Pradesh.

Despite the Congress offer to join hands with like-minded political parties, including BSP, for ousting the BJP from the state, the BSP state chief ruled out the idea. “We have not contested any elections with the Congress in the history of the state,” Ahirwar added.

BSP entered the electoral fray for the first time in undivided Madhya Pradesh in 1989 when it won an Assembly seat in Bilaspur district, that is now in Chhattisgarh.

In the 1993 Assembly polls BSP won 11 seats and secured 4.8 per cent votes, in 1998 it had received 5.8 per cent votes and won 11 seats, in 2003 its vote percentage and number of seats declined to 5 per cent and 2 respectively.

In 2008 the vote percentage and seats increased again to 8.21 per cent and 7 respectively. At present BSP has 4 seats in the Assembly and it got 6.8 per cent votes in the 2013 elections.

In 2008, BSP secured second position in 32 constituencies.

“BJP is standing on the threshold of defeat due to its own reasons such as exploitation of farmers, government employees and labourers of the state. The public wants to oust the BJP from power in the state,” he added.

BSP started its journey of electoral politics from undivided Madhya Pradesh where the party’s then supremo and founder Kanshiram contested his first Lok Sabha election from Chhattisgarh (then part of MP) but was defeated.