Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party may have elbowed Congress out of their gathbandhan (alliance), but the sudden entry of
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Uttar Pradesh’s electoral arena seems to have disturbed their poll arithmetic.
The alliance partners preferred to ignore the popular perception that accommodating the Congress in their scheme of things and offering it an honourable numbers of seats would be to their benefit. The BSP-SP alliance has left only two seats — Amethi and Rae Bareli — for the Congress.
The BSP-SP alliance was announced in Lucknow on January 12 and two weeks later, Congress announced the entry of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra into politics and appointed her as All-India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge of eastern UP. The region is important for the alliance and the Bharatiya Janata Party as SP is likely to contest majority of the seats there and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also have high stakes in the eastern region of the state.
Sources in the SP confirmed that Priyanka’s sudden entry has applied brakes to the seat-sharing process as both the alliance partners are analysing the Priyanka factor’s impact on the electoral prospects of the Congress. Both parties have sought reports from ground zero in east and west UP on the electoral profile of Congress, particularly the mood of Muslims and their stance towards the Congress.
The sources said that the candidates would be declared for all 76 seats (38 each of SP and BSP) well ahead of the announcement of poll schedule by Election Commission of India. “Selection of candidates and seat distribution has been finalised. The BSP is to get a larger representation in west UP and Bundelkhand, while the SP will get more seats in east and central UP,” the sources added.
The Priyanka factor has added to the discomfiture of SP. Candidates of SP and BSP have been finalised on two seats each in Bundelkhand. SP candidates fear that the forceful entry of Congress in this scenario, if it happens, will not only complicate seat-sharing in Bundelkhand but also hurt their poll prospects on whatever number of seats they get.
Though SP leaders claim that they will get a lion’s share of seats in east UP, the influence of Afzal Ansari and his brother, don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari in Ghazipur, Mau, Azamgarh and Ballia districts can create problem for the SP. Afzal is likely to contest from Ghazipur seat on BSP ticket.
The sources said that the BSP would not field its candidate at Kairana and Ghaziabad. In May 2018, Samajwadi Party had contested the Kairana bypoll on the symbol of Rashtriya Lok Dal. The Congress candidate had finished second in the Ghaziabad Lok Sabha constituency in 2014 general elections.
The BSP had finished second on 35 seats but drew a blank in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The SP had won five seats and finished second on 28 seats. There is no difference among the two parties over sharing of Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats as SP candidates had won the Lok Sabha bypolls held there in March, 2018.