Another 'grand alliance' in the making? BSP extends support to SP candidates in UP bypolls

NEW DELHI: While the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) may be joining hands with the Samajwadi Party (SP) to counter the ruling BJP in the upcoming bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, chief Mayawati has clarified that her party has "not allied" with any other.

"I want to clarify that BSP has not allied with any political party. All rumours about a BSP and SP alliance in Uttar Pradesh for 2019 Lok Sabha elections are false and baseless," said Mayawati at a press briefing in Lucknow.

She did indicate that any decision on a tie-up would be taken during the Lok Sabha polls and would depend on whether the BSP is offered a "respectable number of seats."



With barely a week left for voting for the crucial by-elections to Gorakhpur and Phulpur, former chief minister Mayawati's BSP has declared support to candidates fielded by the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP.

"We have not floated any candidate for Lok Sabha Phulpur and Gorakhpur by-polls. Our party members will exercise their vote to defeat the BJP candidate," said Mayawati.

"Our workers want to eliminate BJP and that is why the members of BSP have decided to extend support and vote for SP+ candidate Nagendra Singh Patel in Phulpur by-poll," BSP zonal coordinator Ashok Gautam told ANI.

The bypolls, to be held on March 11, were necessitated after chief minister Yogi Adityanath and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated the Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats respectively, following their election to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.




For the BJP, Gorakhpur is significant as it is the bastion of the chief minister, who has represented the seat in the Lok Sabha five times.

Phulpur was once the bastion of the Congress and represented by India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. It had, for the first time, witnessed a saffron surge in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, when Maurya won the seat.

The results of the bypolls may well set the tone for the 2019 general election. The BJP, which had registered an overwhelming victory in the 2017 UP assembly polls - bagging 325 out of 403 seats along with its allies - will be attempting to retain both the seats and and better their vote share. At such a time, the SP-BSP tie-up seems to have been forged to topple the BJP's apple cart.

The saffron party has fielded Kaushalendra Singh Patel from Phulpur and Upendra Dutt Shukla from Gorakhpur against the SP's Pravin Nishad and Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel respectively. Sureetha Kareem is the Congress candidate from Gorakhpur. The party has fielded Manish Mishra from Phulpur.

(With inputs from agencies)