Will alliance between SP, BSP pose challenge for BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha polls?

BJP president Amit Shah admitted that the SP and the BSP alliance is likely to impact its vote share (mostly in Uttar Pradesh) in the General Elections.

New Delhi, May 26: It is the big 2019 General Election which is keeping almost all the politicians busy, these days. From the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Congress all political parties have already started preparing to face the voters next year.

The General Elections are scheduled to take place in April-May next year. However, reports also indicate that the polls might be preponed and will be held in December this year.

While the Congress and several opposition parties, mostly the regional players, came together to showcase their unity during the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy on Wednesday in Bengaluru, the BJP seems to be pitted against the united Opposition in the forthcoming elections.

On Friday, a day ahead of the fourth anniversary of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre, BJP president Amit Shah admitted that the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alliance is likely to impact its vote share (mostly in Uttar Pradesh) in the General Elections.

Out of the total of 543 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country, Uttar Pradesh itself has 80. Thus the northern state is very important for any party or alliance if it wants to rule Delhi.

"If the BSP and the SP contest in alliance, it would be a challenge to us," Shah told IANS. However, Shah claimed that the BJP would defeat the Congress in its home turf--Amethi and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh--next year.

While Congress president Rahul Gandhi is the current member of Parliament (MP) from Amethi, his mother and former party president Sonia Gandhi is the sitting MP from Rae Bareli.

"But we are sure that we will win [against the Congress] either one seat: Amethi or Rae Bareli," Shah said at an event in the national capital hosted to mark the four-year BJP rule at the Centre.

Although a formal announcement of a tie up between the SP and the BSP is yet to be made, the two parties together had defeated the BJP in bypolls in Uttar Pradesh in March. The alliance between the two former rivals succeeded in defeating the BJP candidates in both the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls.

The Gorakhpur and Phulpur victory bolstered the Opposition's confidence to defeat the BJP in other upcoming elections. And, the BJP realises it very well how important it is for the party to stop both the SP and the BSP from joining hands for the Lok Sabha polls.