The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have agreed in principle to form an alliance in the coming Lok Sabha elections and a formal announcement on the gathbandhan (alliance) between them may take place later this month, SP’s national spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary told PTI on January 5.
SP president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati had given their “in principle approval” to the alliance after a series of meetings. They met on January 4 too in Delhi, Mr. Chaudhary said.
“Talks are on to accommodate some smaller parties in the alliance,” Mr. Chaudhary said. He admitted that the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which has a presence in western U.P., is among these parties.
When asked about the possible inclusion of the Congress in the alliance, he said, “This will be decided by Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati.” But the alliance would not field candidates in Amethi and Raebareli, leaving the two Lok constituencies for Congress president Rahul Gandhi and United Progress Alliance chief Sonia Gandhi.
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav with Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati. File
Opportunistic alliance: BJP
The BJP dubbed the coming closer of the two parties opportunistic. “This is an opportunistic alliance and it is completely anti-people. The BJP will register massive wins in Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” party’s State spokesperson Hero Bajpai told reporters in Lucknow.
Uttar Pradesh sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha. The opposition parties defeated the ruling BJP in three Lok Sabha bypolls in 2018.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won 71 seats, securing 42.63% of the votes. The BJP’s ally, Apna Dal, bagged two. The SP won five seats with a vote share of 22.35%. The BSP did not win any seat while securing 19.77% of the votes. The Congress won two seats, bagging 7.53% of the votes.
