After ending their bitter rivalry and joining hands in Uttar Pradesh for the coming Lok Sabha polls, the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party have decided to fight the election together in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
However, the BSP is likely to go it alone in Bihar.
Both the regional parties of UP have kept the Congress out of their alliance in MP and Uttarakhand.
The BSP will have a dominant position in MP and Uttarakhand in seat-sharing arrangement. The SP will contest three of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in MP and the BSP will contest the rest of them.
The Samajwadi Party will contest Balaghat, Tikamgarh and Khajuraho seats in Madhya Pradesh.
In Uttarakhand, which has five Lok Sabha seats, the SP will contest the Garhwal (Pauri) seat and the BSP will fight on four, according to a joint statement issued by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati.
As in Uttar Pradesh, both the parties have decided to ignore the Congress by denying it an opportunity to contest the elections with them in these two states.
With this, the BSP-SP alliance has officially spread to three states. The two parties had announced their alliance in UP on January 12 in Lucknow. The announcement of Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand seat division came a week after the two parties announced their seat-sharing arrangement in UP under which the BSP will contest 38 seats and SP 37.
However, after leaving Congress out of their poll pact, Akhilesh had said earlier this month that the Congress was part of it and two seats were given to the grand old party in the alliance. While announcing their alliance, Mayawati and Akhilesh had said that they would not field any candidate from Amethi and Rae Bareli parliamentary constituencies represented by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi respectively.
Meanwhile, the BSP is likely to go it alone in Bihar on the coming Lok Sabha elections, as the party’s leaders hinted that it will not be a part of the opposition’s grand alliance.
BSP’s Bihar in-charge Lalji Medhkar said the party would contest all 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
“BSP chief Mayawati has instructed us to prepare to contest all seats in Bihar,” he added.
Medhkar also said the party would not join hands with the grand alliance. “BSP will contest the polls on its own,” he said.
He said Mayawati had invited BSP leaders of Bihar to Delhi for a meeting ahead of the polls to finalise the party’s strategy with them and then announce BSP candidates.
The move is a political setback for the grand alliance in Bihar, which was waiting for the BSP to join it in the hope of putting up an united opposition against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav had met Mayawati in Lucknow in January when it was being speculated that the BSP would be a part of the grand alliance. The BSP has some strong pockets in Bihar, particularly in Gopalganj, Kaimur and Rohtas which are near the Uttar Pradesh border. The RJD was however not willing to concede more than two seats to the BSP. Medhkar said political scenarios were very different in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The development comes amid reports that another grand alliance constituent, Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) president Jitan Ram Manjhi was unhappy over the seats offered to his party.
The mahagathbandhan in Bihar comprises Congress, RJD, Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) led by former Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha, HAM led by Manjhi and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) led by Mukesh Sahni.
The Left parties, including CPI, CPI-M and CPI-ML, are also likely to contest polls together as part of the grand alliance
