SP, BSP in seat deal talks, Congress ignored

Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have initiated preliminary talks about seat-sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, without waiting for the Congress to join the alliance.The formula on which SP and BSP are working will leave no space for the Congress, RLD, Peace Party, Nishad Party and other secular parties that are expected to join the alliance.According to SP sources, Mr Akhilesh Yadav wants seats that the party had won and also those on which the party had ranked second in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.The SP now has seven seats in the Lok Sabha, including Gorakhpur and Phulpur which it won in the byelections earlier this month. In 2014, the party had ranked second in 31 seats which add up to a total of 38 seats.

The BSP, on the other hand, had not won even a single seat in 2014 but had ranked second in 34 seats and had lost five seats with a margin of less than 1000 votes. The party feels it has a rightful claim to 39 seats.While the BSP, as of now is unwilling to concede its ‘big brother’ position, the SP is equally wary to allowing a lion’s share to the BSP.“There has to be a fair formula. We are the single largest party in the opposition in the state assembly with 47 seats while the BSP ended up with just 19 seats. Both the parties will have to be more accommodating and realistic in seat sharing”, said a SP leader.Going by this formula, the option for a third party in the alliance — most possibly the Congress — will be left with merely three seats which apparently is unacceptable to the Congress.Incidentally, both, SP and BSP had attended the dinner hosted by Mrs Sonia Gandhi earlier this month to evolve consensus on an alliance to confront the BJP led government in the Lok Sabha elections.