Coalition of rivals; Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav join hands amidst the Lok Sabha polls

 

 

Lucknow, January 12: The Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi party headed by President Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav respectively, announced the alliance electing 38 seats each out of 80, in the Lok Sabha polls this year. It is BSP chief Mayawati, a prime ministerial candidate for the elections heading, according to Yadav. "You know who is my choice. Uttar Pradesh has given Prime Ministers in the past and trends are to be repeated again. Will back Mayawati for PM candidate when needed," he said.

 

"To defeat the arrogance of BJP, it was necessary for BSP and SP to come together. BJP can go to any extent to create differences in our workers, we must be united and counter any such tactic”, added Yadav with a hope of the next PM belonging to Uttar Pradesh.

 

In response, Finance Minister Arun Jaitely and UP CM Yogi Adityanath commented on the alliance and the motives behind saying that the alliance is outcome of the Modi’s springing sway and that no one can beat the leadership influences showered by the Modi government. “There is no history of these alliances. I simply call it as a coliation of rivals. The people and aligned parties opposing each other have come together having no similarity in the thoughts, votes and the ideologies of the parties.”, Jaitley said.

 

“How many more times are we going to witness the same. The life span of these alliances is not more than few months. The government formed by these allies is usually so weak that single thread reverses it’s warrant, the whole government collapses. The mathematical and statistical analysis will hardly affect the reigns once the masses accept Modi as their leader. We have 35 partners in NDA now, popping up from 24 earlier. “, he added at the BJP National Convention in the national capital.

 

Launching a scathing attack on Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, who joined hands forming alliance today in Lucknow, Yogi said, “Those who did not see each other in the eye and indulged in caste-based politics till yesterday, now want to become allies because PM Narendra Modi has uprooted corruption and diseases from the country.”

 

“I want to ask Congress, SP and BSP, when Samajwadi Party was in power four times and BSP was in power three times, why were the people of Uttar Pradesh not given toilets?”, he pondered further.

 

 

Meanwhile, assuring that Congress is out of the alliance, Mayawati said that, “Congress party rule hasn’t benefitted anyone. There’s no real vote transfer from Congress and hence no real gain from aligning with Congress. We won’t ally with any party which will hurt our political ambitions. We are leaving 2 seats for smaller parties and 2 seats of Amethi and Raebareli for the Congress party without any seat-share deal.” She earlier had admitted that she had reluctantly supported the Congress in both states, just to keep BJP at bay.

 

Both parties have been locking horns for the past two decades in the state – but now they have buried the axe. Mayawati, known for her mercurial temperament, had put the Congress recently on notice by threatening to pull the rug from under the newly formed Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan governments if the cases slapped on Dalits last year were not withdrawn.

 

Akhilesh Yadav has also recently red-flagged the relations with Congress after the latter did not consider its lone legislator in MP for a ministerial berth. Yadav in fact went to the extent of saying that by doing so, the Congress had cleared his way in UP.

 

With her back against the wall, Mayawati is fighting for her party’s survival. When all top leaders akin to Swami Prasad Maurya, Nasimuddin Siddiqui, Thakur Jaiveer Singh and Indrajeet Saroj left the BSP and joined different parties, political pundits had written chants for the BSP. In this scenario, the decision of Mayawati to support the SP in the Phulpur and Gorakhpur by-elections was no less than a masterstroke which is destined to change the political discourse.