Before tie-up SP-BSP will have to resolve a big issues

IndiaVoteKar | January 7, 2019

A meeting between Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati in Delhi on Friday has given rise to speculations that a seat-sharing agreement has been finalised between these of the two parties SP-BSP and an announcement could be made very soon. However, our source said that several factors that need to be agreed upon before the final match of election announcment.

Although as per supposition,, both SP and BSP could contest 37 seats each while leaving two seats each for RLD and Congress and two for other smaller parties such as Nishad Party, Krishna Patel faction of Apna Dal or any other party. But these issue should resolved sooner for both parties.

According to source A BSP leader told that when the Congress and BSP discussed the alliance in Madhya Pradesh, the BSP had put up the condition that the seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha elections needs to be finalised too.

In the case of SP-BSP a larger issue is leadership in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections

In the case of SP and BSP, if one party takes the leadership in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the larger issue would be who the leader would be in the 2022 assembly elections. Even the supporters of both the parties feel that the alliance may not work out till the assembly elections. In that case, transfer of votes among the two parties may become difficult.

A large section of Congress leaders from UP believe that Congress would be better off without an alliance with BSP or SP. “In the 1999 elections, we won 10 seats in UP. In 2004, we won 9 seats and in 2009 we won 22 seats. This was when we contested alone in the state,” said a UP-based Congress leader.

“In 2014, we could win only two. But everyone, except the BJP, lost in 2014.”The Congress argument is that in 2017 they contested the assembly elections with the SP and the result was not satisfactory. Instead, the Gorakhpur-Phulpur model suits both SP-BSP and the Congress.

During the 2018 by-elections, BSP supported SP candidates in Gorakhpur and Phulpur. The Congress put up their candidates in both the seats and got around 20,000 votes. “Our votes get transferred to Congress but Congress voters don’t vote for us,” said an SP leader. “But the Congress can get the BJP votes and we will gain by that.”