With the BJP and the Rashtriya lok Dal set to forge an alliance for the 2017 Assembly polls, clamour is growing within the ruling Samajwadi Party to go for tie-ups with small political outfits.
SP leaders, particularly from west UP and those from constituencies with sizeable Muslim voters, are lobbying with the party brass over allying with with small outfits to counter the twin challenge of RlD-BJP combine and the growing influence of AIMIM's on the minority community.
Party leaders in eentral and eastern UP too are not oblivious to the elevation of Keshav Prasad Maurya from the Most Backward Caste (among OBCs) by the BJP. They feel Maurya could trigger consolidation of non-Yadav OBCs and MBCs like Nishad, Mallah, Koeri and Kushwaha rallying behind the BJP.
"This time it’s going to be now or never for the party and each vote will count. A government in UP is made or marred by a swing of just 4 per cent votes. So tie-up with small outfits and if not an alliance then a poll understanding with Congress is much needed,’’ opined a senior SP leader.
The party has a core vote of 25-26 per cent, but it needs 4 per cent peripheral votes to romp home which would come only by forging alliances with other parties.
"A pre-poll survey in March had predicted only 80 seats for the SP and 185 for the BSP. My party has rejected it as 'sponsored and conspiracy' of political rivals. But we can see the writing on the wall in west UP. Going solo in the poll will be a blunder,’’ said the SP leader.
Another leader from east UP suggested, "We should open our channels of dialogue with Apna Dal (Krishna Patel faction), Qaumi Ekta Dal of Mukhtar Ansari and Bharat Samaj Party of Om Prakash Rajbhar."
The SP had won 224 out of 403 seats in 2012 Assembly polls with a vote share of 29.1 per cent creating a record in poll history. Never before had any party won a majority with such low vote share.