After nearlytwo years of speculation, the Samajwadi Party has confirmed that it has sealed a deal with the Bahujan Samaj Party for an alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 general elections.
The SP and the BSP, who were fierce rivals in UP, had first expressed their inclination to join hands after both the parties were almost wiped out from the electoral scene of the state in the 2017 UP assembly election. While the tally of the SP was reduced to 47 MLAs, the BSP could win only 19 seats in the 403-member UP assembly.
SP spokesman Rajendra Choudhary said here on Saturday that on Friday, BSP chief Mayawati and SP president Akhilesh Yadav had sealed the alliance in a three-hour marathon meet in New Delhi and agreed on a seat-sharing formula as well.
Choudhary said that a formal announcement on the gathbandhan (alliance) between the two UP-based parties was likely to be announced later this month and the two party chiefs had given their “in-principle approval” to joining hands to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party. He, however, declined to share the details of seat sharing formula between the two parties.
The SP spokesman said talks were also on with other “smaller” parties to strengthen the alliance, but remained silent when asked whether Congress would be a part of the gathbandhan.
Sources said that both SP and BSP are planning to contest on 37 seats each out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats on offer in Uttar Pradesh and plan to leave just two — Rae Bareli and Amethi, represented by Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi — for the Congress. Choudhary said the SP-BSP alliance would not field candidates on these two seats.
Signs already point towards the Congress going it alone in the Lok Sabha polls in the most crucial state, UP, with the grand old party’s Rajya Sabha member PL Punia saying on Saturday that his party was preparing to contest the election alone.
“A coalition is not important... Our workers are ready... We have not spoken to anyone about an alliance,” he said.
When Choudhary was asked about the possible inclusion of Congress in the UP alliance, he said, “This will be decided by Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati.
Akhilesh’s uncle and close aide Ram Gopal Yadav also confirmed that Congress would not be a part of the coalition when asked about the inclusion of the grand old party in the gathbandhan.
“Kaalpanik baatein kyun keh rahe ho? Aisa hai, gathbandhan ka matlab aap samajhiye aur apne aap samajh lijiye baaton ko. (Why are you talking about imaginary things? Understand the meaning of alliance and what is going on here),” the SP leader said.
Choudhary, meanwhile, admitted that the Rashtriya Lok Dal, which has a presence in western UP, was among the parties in talks with SP and BSP. RLD is likely to get two seats. While RLD chief Ajit Singh is likely to contest from his stronghold Baghpat, his son Jayant Choudhary will once again contest from Mathura, sources said.
The two remaining seats have been reserved for other partners of the gathbandhan in the state — the Peace Party and Nishad Party. The alliance could also accommodate sulking BJP ally Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party. Rajbhar is presently a minister in the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet but has constantly been criticising his own government and the BJP.
According to BJP’s own calculations, an SP-BSP alliance may cost the party at least 25-30 seats in UP in the general election. The BJP and its allies had won 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 parliamentary elections.
The gathbandhan arithmetic had worked in the bypolls as the consolidation of OBC, Dalit and Muslim votes had powered the joint opposition candidates to victory in the by-elections to Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana Lok Sabha seats in 2018.
