What will be the fate of SP and BSP alliance considering reservation in promotion issue?

New Delhi, Sep 26: The case before the Supreme Court of India on reservation in promotion will definitely have some political fall outs as well as there were some on Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. What will have its impact on the two political parties - the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party that have been at loggerheads on the issue from very long. What will be the Congress' stand as it too was expected to join the alliance.

There were talks that the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress will join hands to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and they had to huddle together before 2019 Lok Sabha elections but somehow things don't seem to be working for this alliance for such inherent contradiction among ideologies of these parties. But divergent views of the two key allies of this proposed alliance may mar the chances of them joining hands.

The SP that has been in the government in Uttar Pradesh for several terms and always opposed reservation in promotion. It opposed this right from Parliament to the state government level. So much so that the SP government under Akhilesh Yadav removed the fixed reservation in jobs designed for employment promotion among scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs). The state government with an official order demoted assigned promotions of SC and ST servicemen affecting around 200,000 people which was later taken cognizance by the court. Dalit community was always getting hurt and insecure by these government orders, which has been the reason for Mayawati getting stronger.

On the other hand Mayawati's BSP has been reaping political benefits out of this which will be an opportune moment for her. But if she goes with the Samajwadi party, political parties like the BJP in Uttar Pradesh might use this anti-Dalit perception about Mayawati in its favour. So now Mayawati will have to tread cautiously. And in the case with the Congress which is already struggling in the state, aligning with the Samajwadi might give the wrong signal as it was the principled position of the Samajwadi Party.

Mayawati had always been vocal on this issue and had criticised the Akhilesh Yadav government's decisions against promotion in reservation. So it is interesting to watch moves of these political parties on this very issue.

Bharatiya Janata Party national spokesperson Bizay Sonkar Shastri told One India, "We were always in favour of Dalit empowerment and that they should be given all kinds of protection whether employment or promotion. Therefore our government continued with the policy of reservation in employment. Not only the affidavit in the court but the government passed the order that promotion in reservation must be implemented in universities, colleges. All the vacancies and various universities were stopped just to implement this with the old policy of reservation."