BJP ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) Saturday described the SP-BSP alliance as a strong electoral combination and said the ruling NDA should strengthen itself to challenge the opposition.

LJP leader Chirag Paswan, however, slammed the alliance of once arch-rivals, saying it was the tie-up between those who have acquired assets beyond their known sources of income, a reference to old cases against BSP supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party announced Saturday their tie-up in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, sharing 38 seats each and keeping the Congress out of the alliance.

The parties, however, said they would not field candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli, represented by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Paswan said both the parties ruled Uttar Pradesh for long where people were forced to migrate due to unemployment and crime.

He said that as an electoral strategy, the SP-BSP alliance is strong. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance should also strengthen itself to challenge it so that the people of UP could give the SP-BSP combine a befitting reply, he said.

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