Virtually all of them, from west UP based Rashtriya Lok Dal to eastern UP party Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, are busy flaunting their importance to the bigger parties, telling them they have “options”.

The RLD, which had failed to open its account in the Modi wave in the 2014 LS polls, is widely tipped to be part of the SP-BSP alliance in UP. The SP-BSP have shared bulk of the seats but RLD’s share is yet not clear. While RLD leader Anil Dubey said they would go with the SP-BSP alliance, another party leader requesting anonymity said, “Hamari dukaan main bada maal hai, bahut grahak bhihain (our shop is full, there are several takers).”

“We won’t settle for anything less than 5 seats at least,” the leader said adding they also had “feelers” from the Congress. “If we go with the Congress, we could even get 10 seats,” the RLD leader said.

The BJP too is busy placating smaller parties. BJP chief Amit Shah who had in 2014 LS polls inked pact with Apna Dal, the OBC party of Kurmis, and then with SBSP ahead of 2017 UP polls, is busy placating the SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar who has been openly critical of the BJP.

Rajbhar who is also a cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath government was in Delhi on Tuesday to meet Shah. Another round of meeting with the BJP chief has been planned for February 26.

“Seat sharing agreements would also take place then in the presence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath,” said an SBSP leader.

Such is their importance that Samajwadi Party has already decided to ‘accommodate’ small fringe players like the Nishad party and the Peace Party by giving them seats from its ‘quota’ in the SP-BSP alliance.

The Congress under its new general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in-charge of east UP, has already announced plans to tie-up with east UP based Mahaan Dal, an OBC group. It’s also in touch with Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSPL), the new political outfit floated by disgruntled Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav. There is talk of Shivpal Yadav meeting top Congress leadership in Delhi to finalise seat sharing agreements.

“See, so far big parties used to ignore smaller outfits. But now aware that there may be a keen contest and wafer thin victory margins in 2019 LS polls, the bigger players are busy wooing smaller ones. It’s our moment and we are enjoying it. We may not be big but we have ground-level connect and could make a big difference in the final outcome,” says Shashi Pratap Singh, a close aide of cabinet minister and SBSP leader Om Prakash Rajbhar.

“Most of these smaller parties have power to transfer votes. There is good reason to believe that if the BJP continues to woo SBSP, which has been openly critical of it, or if Congress has stitched pact with lesser known Mahaan Dal in UP, they know the importance of these parties,” said Athar Siddiqui of the Centre for Objective Research and Development (CORD).

“They do have their importance and that is why Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel has been made a minister in Modi government while SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar was rewarded with a cabinet berth in UP government,” a BJP leader said.

First Published: Feb 21, 2019 09:03 IST