Seeking to pursue a strident caste-based identity politics for consolidating Other Backward Castes (OBCs ) votes, Samajwadi Party is no longer interested in allying with the Congress in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 lok Sabha polls.
“Congress doesn’t fit into our political narrative. In alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party, we want to build a stron front against the BJP. Political narrative of Dalits, Muslims and OBCs against upper caste-dominated BJP is the political attack line of 85 per cent vs 15 per cent that we will employ. This we cannot pursue in alliance with the Congress, which like the BJP, is also an uppercaste dominated party,’’ explained a senior SP leader.
The development comes just days after the SP skipped a Iftar party hosted by Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi. A senior SP leader said “Our experience with the Congress in 2017 Assembly polls has not been good as the alliance proved counter-productive for us.”