With the rumblings in the BJP, expulsion of rebel MLAs from BSP and the rebels seeking comfort zone, the political parties have kick-started the battle for the 2022 UP Assembly elections. The political activities are likely to gather pace with a sharp dip in the Covid curve.
The Samajwadi Party, facing existential crisis after three consecutive defeats in UP (2014 Lok Sabha polls, 2017 UP Assembly polls and 2019 Lok Sabha elections) is desperately trying to reinvent itself. The SP, having burnt its fingers after forging alliance with the Congress for the 2017 UP Assembly elections and later with the BSP and Rashtriya Lok Dal for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, seems to have grown wiser. It has ruled out alliances with bigger parties and decided to have a truck only with small parties.
The SP has already firmed up alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal, (RLD) a predominantly Jat political outfit.
Newly elected RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary has made it clear that his party will contest the assembly elections in alliance with the SP to send a message to its support base, the Jat community in western UP. RLD has also announced its support to SP candidates in the zila panchayat chairpersons’ elections.
The SP has also firmed up the alliance with the Mahan Dal that is said to be popular among Maurya, Kushwaha and Saini caste voters in western UP districts.
The Mahan Dal has also announced its support for the SP in the assembly elections. SP sources said the party leadership is worried by not getting the votes of non-Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav SCs in the last three elections which it lost.
“SP has repeatedly committed the mistake to overwhelmingly rely on the Yadav-Muslim vote bank, leaving the rest of the Hindu votes for the BJP,” a senior SP leader said, adding: “To bridge this gap, the SP is forging alliance with small caste-based political parties to prevent the ‘Ati Picchda’ votes going to the BJP.”
A SP leader said: “With 11 per cent Yadav votes and 19 per cent Muslim votes, we were actually treating the Muslims as a majority community.”