PAWAR, NAIDU TO CONVINCE SP, BSP FOR GRAND ALLIANCE
Mayawati, Akhilesh met in Delhi on Jan 4 for talks that did not feature Congress
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI/HYDERABAD : Opposition veterans Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and N Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) are trying to convince Mayawati of the BSP and Akhilesh Yadav of the SP to get on board the proposed grand alliance of non-National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parties that they are attempting to stitch up for the 2019 parliamentary elections, leaders familiar with the matter said. Mayawati and Yadav met in Delhi on January 4 and entered into a broad agreement about seat sharing for UP that, until now, excludes the Congress, but keeps the door open for smaller parties, such as the RLD.
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI/HYDERABAD: Opposition veterans Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and N Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) are trying to convince Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (SP) to get on board the proposed grand alliance of non-National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parties that they are attempting to stitch up for the 2019 parliamentary elections, leaders familiar with the matter said.
Mayawati and Yadav met in Delhi on January 4 and entered into a broad agreement about seat sharing for Uttar Pradesh that, until now, excludes the Congress, but keeps the doors open for smaller parties, such as the Rashtriya Lok Dal of Jat leader Ajit Singh. Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 representatives to the Lok Sabha, holds the key to New Delhi. In 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 72 of these seats. An NCP leader in Mumbai said Pawar is in touch with Mayawati and that former union minister Praful Patel had reached out
AS MANY AS 21 PARTIES ON THE EVE OF PARLIAMENT’S WINTER SESSION HAD RESOLVED TO DEFEAT THE BJP
to Yadav to convince them about the need to join the grand-alliance-in-the-making.
On Tuesday, Naidu was in Delhi and met with Congress president Rahul Gandhi. He also met Pawar, Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah later in the evening.
“There is a democratic compulsion. We have been saying from the beginning. All of us have to join to save the nation. There may be some political compulsion, but we are one at the national level. As senior leaders, it our responsibility to bring everyone on one platform,” Naidu said after meeting Pawar.
As many as 21 opposition parties came together on the eve of Parliament’s winter session, and resolved to work together to defeat the BJP, but the two UP stalwarts skipped the event. They also did not show up at the swearing-in of Congress chief ministers in three states, which many senior opposition leaders attended. The Congress has wrested three key Hindi heartland states, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, from the BJP. The NCP leader cited above said Pawar was also keen on getting the BSP to be part of the CongressNCP led coalition in Maharashtra since two prominent Dalit leaders, Ramdas Athawale and Prakash Ambedkar, are not with it. While Athawale of the Republican Party of India has decided to stick to the NDA, Ambedkar of the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh has tied up with Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.
On Tuesday, Pawar said: “Mamata Banerjee has called a meeting in Kolkata on January 19. We will go. Other opposition leaders are also coming.” Naidu, a leader close to him said, also believes that a three-cornered contest in Uttar Pradesh – when Congress contests independently of the SP and BSP – could be detrimental to opposition unity and ultimately benefit the BJP. HT reported on December 25 that the Congress is considering all options, including going it alone in the state. The SP and the BSP both consider the Congress’ intention to contest about 18 seats in Uttar Pradesh as ‘unrealistic’ and much beyond its actual strength on the ground.
An SP leader said Yadav believes his party did not benefit from an alliance with the Congress during the 2017 assembly elections and that the Congress treated him ‘unfairly’ after the election was over. The Congress did not accept Yadav’s request to campaign in the Gujarat assembly election in 2017, and did not concede seats for the SP in recent assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Mayawati, a BSP leader said, is of the view that Congress’ strength is limited to only half-adozen parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh and any extra seat will be a ‘waste’. She is, however, conscious of the damage that a split in minority votes, particularly in Western UP, can do. Gilles Verniers, an assistant professor of political science at Ashoka University, said both the SP and the BSP are crucial for any opposition alliance. “An SP-BSP alliance is the crux of the coming election. It is also because Uttar Pradesh is the only Hindi belt state where regional parties can bring the BJP down by several notches.”