Samajwadi Party said that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s entry into politics would have no impact on the electoral prospects of its alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party. However, it said, the coming together of SP and BSP had rattled the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Neeraj Shekhar, Rajya Sabha member and son of former Prime Minister Chandrasekhar, said in a statement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been shaken to the core by the alliance of opposition parties. “This is why he is coining words like ‘mahamilawat’ to target them,” he added.
Shekhar said, “In the nation’s interest, our aim is to remove Modi and the voter and party workers know this very well. They also know what kind of situation may emerge if Modi wins again.”
Shekhar, a close confidant of SP president Akhilesh Yadav, expressed confidence that the SP-BSP alliance would confine the BJP to a single digit in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
“The results of the coming Lok Sabha polls will be in favour of the opposition alliance as there is anger among farmers and youths across the country against the Modi government which has failed to fulfil the promises made to them,” he said.
“They (BJP) have formed alliances with over 40 political parties. They allied with PDP in Jammu and Kashmir, a party opposed to the BJP’s ideology. But when we are going for alliance, it is giving them pain,” he added.
Shekhar ridiculed BJP president Amit Shah’s claim that the BJP and its allies would win not less than 73 of the 80 seats they won in UP in 2014.
“No one believes what Shah is claiming. In fact, they (BJP) will be confined to single digit and their dream to retain power again will remain a dream,” he said.
Shekhar, a former Lok Sabha member from Ballia, said if the BJP thought it could cover up the losses in UP by winning more seats in West Bengal and Odisha, then he was underestimating Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik (chief ministers of West Bengal and Odisha respectively).
He also said that the BJP would not be able to repeat its 2014 performance in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand also.
