BSP-SP repeat alliance of 1993 but who has the edge

New Delhi, Jan 12: The Samajwadi Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have announced that they will contest on equal number of Lok Sabha seats that is 38 each in Uttar Pradesh in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The SP-BSP has not made the Congress part of the alliance but they announced not fielding candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareily Lok Sabha constituencies from where Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother and UPA chairpersons Sonia Gandhi are MPs.

BSP chief Mayawati talked about the 1993 alliance between SP patron Mulayam Singh and BSP leader Kanshi Ram. She also said that she moved on from the Guest House incidence of Lucknow. Actually the alliance of the BSP and the SP in 1993 too has halted the BJP juggernaut in UP.

The BJP was contesting election in the aftermath of demolition of Babri structure and environment of the state was communally surcharged. But despite both the parties contesting together, the BJP had won more seats that than the alliance though the difference was just of one seat. The BJP had won 177 Assembly seats without any alliance and the BSP-SP alliance had won 176 seats in the UP Assembly together out of total 422 seats. The BSP had won 67 seats in that election while the SP got 109 seats.

The Congress had won 28 seats but the party was not as weak in the state as it is today. So the claim made by the BJP and the SP-BSP alliance has many things that needs to be taken care of before pronouncing any judgment that either the BJP or the SP-BSP alliance have the edge.

If Suheldev Bharat Samaj Party led by Om Prakash Rajbhar and Apna Dal (Sonelal) led by Anupriya Patel are gradually becoming challenge for the ruling alliance at the Centre and at the state then political outfit led by Shivpal Singh Yadav and Chandrashekar Azad is trouble for the SP-BSP combine.

The BJP has too face the double incumbency of Centre and the state but the SP-BSP has their organisations in tatters in the state. Vote transfer is another issue that has to be taken care off. The BSP votes can be transferred anywhere but this is not equally true with Muslim and Yadav votes of the SP. So it is very interesting to watch way people vote for.

A kind of social engineering has been done by the SP-BSP and BJP chief Amit Shah too has told its worker in the national council meeting that alliance or no alliance the BJP will be winning 74-75 Lok Sabha seats in UP.