Indicating that the newly forged ties between the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party would be strengthened over time, BSP chief Mayawati, on 26 March, met her party’s coordinators to apprise them of "new strategy" to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The meeting comes days after the BSP-SP front failed to dim the sheen on the BJP’s Rajya Sabha victory and weeks after the alliance wrested Gorakhpur and Phulpur out of the BJP’s control.
With all eyes now on the upcoming bypolls for Kairana parliamentary and Noorpur assembly seats in western UP, the big question is whether the SP and BSP will join hands to fend off the BJP yet again.
However, there is no clarity on the issue, with multiple reports offering contradictory views. An Indian Express report quoted a BSP source as saying that Mayawati would back the SP candidate in the bypolls – that have been necessitated by the demise of BJP MP Hukum Singh and MLA Lokendra Singh Chauhan last month.
A Times of India report quoted the BSP chief as saying that she would “not activate its cadres in any bypoll in future, the way it did it in Gorakhpur and Phulpur”. The report stated that Mayawati was upset over the Akhilesh Yadav’s “political immaturity in depending” on independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh for BSP candidate’s victory.
Another report from Hindu BusinessLine confirmed that the RS election loss has not dented ties with SP.
Mayawati Urges Non-BJP Front
PTI quoted Mayawati as saying that non-BJP parties should come together to address the problems of common people, including the poor and the youth, because of the "wrong policies of the BJP-led central and state governments".
“The BSP's close ties with the Samajwadi Party are not for any selfish motive but in the national interest," she told the media. The BSP-SP friendship is being welcomed all over the country, she said, adding that the workers of the two parties would not fall prey to the BJP's designs.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)