Past bitterness forgotten, SP, BSP join hands to take on BJP
FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT Both will contest 38 seats in UP, leave two each for Congress, others
This...will rob ‘guruchela’ — PM Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah — of their sleep... we will crush the saffron party in the general elections
LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Ma y a w a t i on Saturday announced an alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in which each will contest 38 seats in Uttar Pradesh, leaving two seats for the Congress and two for other smaller allies.
Addressing a press conference in Lucknow along with Akhilesh, Mayawati said the SP-BSP alliance “will give sleepless nights” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath hit back, tweeting: “This is a coalition of casteist, corrupt and opportunistic mindset that doesn’t want development and good governance. Public knows everything and this unholy alliance will be given a perfect answer.” In Delhi,union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the alliance is for their survival and not in the interest of the country or Uttar Pradesh.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the SP had won five seats, while the BSP failed to win any. The BJP got 71 seats and its ally Apna Dal two seats out of the total 80. The Congress won two --- Rae Bareli and Amethi; the two seats are held by United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi. In the 2017 assembly polls, SP and BSP got 22 % votes each while the BJP got 42.6% votes, winning 312 of the total 403 seats. The Sp-congress alliance got 56 seats and the BSP was a distant third with 19 seats.
The BSP and SP joined hands during t he parliamentary by-polls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur last year in which SP candidates backed by the BSP succeeded in winning both the seats . Gorakhpur had been vacated by Adityanath and Phulpur by deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya. In Kairana, the third by-poll in 2018, the two parties supported the Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate,tabassum Begum, who won.
As Mayawati said, the SP and BSP are looking to combine their vote bank, which primarily consists of about 22 % Dalits, 45% other backward classes and 19 % Muslims in the politically crucial state.
This is not the first time the BSP and SP will contest elections in Uttar Pradesh in an alliance. Ahead of the 1993 UP assembly elections, BSP and SP veterans, Kanshi Ram and Mulayam Singh Yadav,respectively, announced an electoral alliance. Even though the BJP emerged as the single largest party with 177 seats, the SP (109) and BSP (67) formed the government.
This time they are pitted against a stronger rival. However, the parties have chosen not to include the Congress in their battle against the BJP, saying that there was no real gain in aligning with the party. “Con- MAYAWATI, BSP chief YOGI ADITYANATH, UP CM
Mayawati’s respect is my respect. An insult to her is an insult to me. If any BJP men or others say anything against her, it will be against me
AKHILESH YADAV, SP chief
This is a coalition of casteist, corrupt and opportunistic mindset that doesn’t want development and good governance... this unholy alliance will be given a perfect answer