The Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Thursday announced that they will contest 75 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 general election, practically ruling out any possibility of the Congress joining the anti-BJP alliance in the State.
While the SP will contest 37, the BSP will fight it out in 38 seats, the presidents of the two parties, Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati, said in a joint statement.
The names of the candidates have not been announced.
Out of the remaining five seats, three will go to the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). The RLD brushed aside all speculation of being in talks with the Congress, and affirmed that it was a part of the SP-BSP alliance. The three seats for the RLD are Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat and Mathura. RLD chief Ajit Singh is expected to fight from Muzaffarnagar while vice-president Jayant Chaudhary is likely to contest from Baghpat, considered the pocket borough of the family.
The alliance has decided to not field any candidates in Rae Bareli and Amethi, currently held by Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
Some key constituencies, held by high-profile BJP leaders, including Varanasi, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Kairana, Phulpur, Allahabad, Azamgarh and Faizabad, have been allotted to the SP.
While Varanasi is the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gorakhpur is the bastion of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Lucknow is currently held by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
However, in 2018, the SP wrested Phulpur and Gorakhpur with the support of the BSP and the Nishad Party in a by-poll, while in Kairana the RLD defeated the BJP as a united Opposition experimented in poll management.
The SP’s seats include Kannauj, where Mr. Akhilesh Yadav is expected to contest, and Mainpuri, considered a stronghold of SP founder Mulayam Singh.
Mulayam’s poser
Moments before the list was released, however, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav was once again embarrassed by his father Mulayam Singh, who questioned the distribution of seats, saying it would weaken the SP.
“On what basis were half the seats given (to the BSP),” the SP patriarch asked, while addressing party workers at the party headquarters.
The seats in the BSP’s list of 38 include Saharanpur, Meerut, Aligarh, Bijnor, and Bulandshahr. Out of the 17 reserved (SC) seats in teh State, the BSP is contesting 10 while the SP has got seven. The reserved seats include Agra, Nagina and Bulandshahr.
While the BSP has no members in the current Lok Sabha, the SP has seven. The RLD holds the Kairana seat.
RLD vice-president Jayant Chaudhary said his party was regularly working for an “effective opposition unity” against the anti-farmer, anti-youth and anti-Dalit policies of the BJP government.
