SP, BSP agree on LS tieup in UP; Cong likely to go alone
New Delhi: In a bid to collectively take on the BJP, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have firmed up an alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the coming Lok Sabha polls. Though the two parties did not announce the number of seats out of 80 that each would be contesting, speculation is rife that they both may fight on 37 seats each, leaving the rest for the Rashtriya Lok Dal which has a significant presence in western parts of the state.
Amidst ambiguity whether the Congress would be part of the Opposition alliance in the state that is known to hold the key to the government at the Centre, the grand old party said it was ready to go it alone.
Congress Rajya Sabha member P.L. Punia said, “A coalition is not important... Our workers are ready... We have not spoken to anyone about an alliance.”
Samajwadi Party’s national spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said on Saturday that the two regional parties have agreed in principle to form an alliance and a formal announcement on the gathbandhan (alliance) may take place later this month.
Sources said Mayawati’s birthday on January 15 may be chosen to announce the UP alliance.
The regional parties have already clarified that they would not field any candidates from the Gandhi family bastions of Rae Bareli and Amethi.
Mr Chaudhary said that Akhilesh Yadav and Ms Mayawati had given their “in-principle approval” to the alliance after a series of meetings between them culminating in the one on Friday.
Though Mr Chaudhary remained non-committal on the inclusion of Congress in the alliance, Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav hinted that the door may still be open to tie up with the Congress.
“Why are you imagining?” he said when asked about whether Congress would be left out.
It might be recalled that the Congress and the BSP had failed to reach an alliance before the Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Though later both the SP and the BSP gave their unconditional support to the Congress, Akhilesh Yadav had made a cryptic remark recently that by not including the lone SP MLA in the Madhya Pradesh Cabinet, the Congress had made things easier for him in Uttar Pradesh.
Politically crucial Uttar Pradesh sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha. Analysts have been speculating that in the event of the SP and the BSP fighting together, the BJP may take a hit and its tally of 72 Lok Sabha seats may come down to around 50.
In last year’s bypolls, when both the Uttar Pradesh parties had fought together, they had managed to rout the BJP whether it was in Kairana, Phulpur or Gorakhpur.
In the last parliamentary elections, the BJP won 71 seats, securing 42.63 per cent of the votes. BJP ally Apna Dal bagged two seats. The SP won five seats with a vote share of 22.35 per cent. The BSP did not win any seat while securing 19.77 per cent votes. The Congress registered wins on two seats in 2014, bagging 7.53 per cent of the votes.