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 gagainst the BJP. Political narrative of Dalits, Muslims and OBCs against upper caste-dominated BJP is the political attack line of 85 percent vs 15 percent that we will employ. This we can not 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. Truly speaking for 2019 general polls, we actually don’t need the Congress to defeat the BJP in UP. The SP-BSP alliance alone can do it.”
like in the past, the SP will not field a candidate against Congress in Amethi and Rae Bareli which are the constituencies of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi respectively.
A senior SP leader said, “It’s not like we have personal issues with the Congress brass. Our reservations with the party are purely political.”
He said that the triple victories in Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana lok Sabha bypolls have triggered hard-nosed bargaining within the grand alliance (mahagathbandhan).
The SP brass is however perplexed over the calculated silence of BSP chief Mayawati both before and after the Kairana bypoll. ``No one really knows what Behenji’s next move would be,’’ said the SP leader.
In the 2017 Assembly election, the SP’s alliance with the grand old party suffered a humiliating drubbing. In the aftermath, the SP felt that giving its ally over 100 seats was a mistake as its core voters, especially Yadavs and OBCs did not vote for the Congress.
SP brass’ post-defeat analysis further threw up that the limited appeal and presence of Congress in UP was restricted to upper castes and hence, alligning with the party for 2019 general election could be another faux pas.
Singed by the failed alliance with Congress in 2017 Assembly poll, Akhilesh Yadav described the talk of alliances as a ‘waste of time’.
Spellingout his priority ahead of 2019 general election, Yadav recently said, “The 2019 poll is certainly crucial as the message from UP will go out to the country. As of now, I am not thinking of an alliance with any party. It (alliance talks and seat negotiations) wastes a lot of time and I don’t want to be in confusion (over seats).”