After day long intense speculation over the alliance of the Bahujan Samaj Party with the Samajwadi party or the BSP extending support to the SP in by polls for the two lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, the former chief minister Mayawati on Sunday denied reports of a tie up with its arch rival Samajwadi party.
“Bahujan Samaj party has not entered into an alliance with any political party.I want to clarify that BSP has not allied with any political party. All rumors about BSP and SP alliance in UP for 2019 lok Sabha elections are false and baseless’’, said the BSP chief Mayawati here on Sunday.
Further clarifying her party’s stand Mayawati said `` if the Samajwadi party and Bahujan Samaj transfer their votes to each during the election of the Rajya Sabha and UP legislative council for defeating the BJP candidate then it should not be taken as electoral alliance’’. Mayawati is likely to be the joint opposition candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections to be held later this month. Without the support of the Samajwadi party she cannot win the election.
On the by polls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur lok Sabha seats Mayawati said `` We have not fielded any candidate for the by polls to the Phulpur and Gorakhpur lok Sabha seats. Our party members will exercise their franchise to defeat the BJP candidate.” She was referring to the by polls to be held in Gorakhpur and Phulpur lok Sabha seats , the two constituencies vacated by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya. The Samajwadi Party has already fielded Pravin Nishad from Gorakhpur and Nagendra Singh Patel from Phulpur.
Earlier in the day on Sunday, the BSP’s Gorakhpur zonal coordinator Ghanshyam Kharwar in a press conference at Gorakhpur declared support to Samajwadi party candidate Pravin Nishad for upcoming by poll in Gorakhpur. He however clarified that the BSP leaders will not campaign for the SP candidate nor they will share the dais with the Samawadi party.
For the by poll to the Phulpur lok Sabha seat also the BSP has extended its support to the Samajwadi Party candidate. “Our workers want to eliminate the BJP and that is why the members of Bahujan Samaj Party have decided to extend support and vote for the Samajwadi Party candidate Nagendra Singh Patel in the Phulpur by poll,” said Ashok Gautam, BSP Zonal Coordinator in Allahabad. Voting for the lok Sabha by-elections in these two constituencies will be held on 11 March, while counting of votes will be held on 14 March.
With barely a week left for the by polls to the two lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh political parties are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that they emerge victorious in the by polls which are being viewed as a “rehearsal” for the 2019 general elections.
The ruling BJP which had registered an overwhelming win in the 2017 UP Assembly polls bagging 325 out of 403 seats along with its allies, is pulling all stops to retain both the seats and register victory with a bigger margin, while the focus of the opposition political parties will be to topple the BJP’s apple cart. The by polls were necessitated after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated the Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats respectively, following their election to the UP legislative Council.
For the BJP, Gorakhpur is significant as it is the bastion of the chief minister, who has represented the seat in the lok Sabha five times. Prior to Yogi Adityanath, the Gorakhpur lok Sabha seat was thrice represented in Parliament by his mentor Yogi Avaidyanath. Phulpur was once the bastion of the Congress and represented by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. It had, for the first time, witnessed a saffron surge in the 2014 lok Sabha election, when Maurya won the seat.
The by-elections are expected to witness a triangular contest among the ruling BJP, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress. The BJP has fielded Kaushalendra Singh Patel from Phulpur and Upendra Dutt Shukla from Gorakhpur against the SP’s Pravin Nishad and Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel respectively. Sureetha Kareem is the Congress candidate from Gorakhpur. The party has fielded Manish Mishra from Phulpur.