Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati announce alliance for 2019 Lok Sabha polls

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Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday held a joint press conference here and made a formal announcement of alliance in UP for Lok Sabha polls.

Speaking at the conference, Mayawati said: “This joint press conference will rob ‘guru-chela’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, of their sleep.”

Mayawati said the Congress has not been included in the SP-BSP alliance in UP as during its rule “poverty, unemployment and corruption grew”.

Informed sources said that the two former Chief Ministers might formally announce the formation of the alliance for the Lok Sabha polls and also share the seat-sharing formula.

A tactical alliance between SP and BSP – once sworn enemies – helped them defeat the BJP in Lok Sabha by-elections in Gorakhpur and Phulpur last year.

The two parties also backed the candidate of RLD-led by Ajit Singh to win the Kairana Lok Sabha constituency.

A senior party leader said that while the SP and BSP will share 37 seats each, they will leave two for Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).

The alliance might also leave two seats, Amethi and Rae Bareli, for the Congress to enable Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi to contest from there.

These were the only two seats the Congress won in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in which the BSP drew a blank and SP managed to win five seats, again won by members of the Samajwadi Party’s ‘first family’.

The BJP swept 71 seats while its ally Apna Dal got two seats in a four-way contest.

If the BSP, SP and RLD join hands, it may emerge as a formidable alliance against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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