Uttar Pradesh former chief ministers and supremos of two major parties Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati forgetting their rivalries have come together to fight against Narendra Modi led NDA in the upcoming general elections.
Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati today announced their alliance at a hotel in Lucknow. Both parties will contest on equal seats 38-38. Two seats they have left for Congress where Gandhi family members have their traditional seats. Two seats according to them, they have left for smaller parties. Speculations were that Ajit Singh led Rashtriya Lok Dal would get at least 3 seats and Apna Dal who quit NDA days before would get at least 1 seat. However, leaving 2 seats for other allies have left RLD and Apna Dal in a fix.
Yesterday, talking to media, RLD supremo Ajit Singh had said that he is likely to contest from his stronghold Baghpat and his son Jayant Chaudhary will once again contest from Mathura. Kairana is already a seat with RLD in alliance with Samajwadi Party.
Sources from RLD however told the media that the numbers announced today are not final and negotiation is going on with alliance leaders.
Mayawati in a joint press conference with SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav said that the Congress will not be a part of the alliance. “Both Congress and BJP are the same. It is because of the policies of the Congress that parties like ours came into existence,” she said.
On corruption, she said “Both parties are allegedly involved in defence scam. Bofors had sunk Congress and Rafale will sink BJP.”
“This will give guru-chela Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah sleepless nights,” Mayawati further said after the announcement.
26 years back, alliance between SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Nayak Kanshi Ram lasted for only two years and ended on a fairly bad note. It all happened after an unruly mob of SP workers barged into a guest house in Lucknow on June 2, 1995, where Mayawati was holding a meeting.
“For the benefit of country, we decided to rise above the Lucknow guest house incident and again came together,” Mayawati said in a retort aimed at PM Modi, who had scorned her for “forgetting” that episode while allying with the Samajwadi Party.
“This is not an alliance only to win the polls but to also represent the interests of the common people and Dalits, Muslims and other religious minorities,” said the BSP chief.
Last year, the two parties decided to team up for important by-polls that were prestige battles for the ruling BJP and succeeded in defeating.
After a successful dry run in three seats, including Yogi Adityanath’s Gorakhpur, the two parties explored taking their alliance to the next level – the 2019 national polls.
“We have defeated the BJP in by-polls by coming together in the last year. The Congress even lost its deposit. This made us realise that of the SP and BSP come together, we can win against the BJP,” Mayawati said.
Samajwadi Supremo Akhilesh Yadav said that alliance between SP and BSP was necessary to defeat the arrogance of BJP. “This is not only an electoral alliance between the SP and BSP, it is the end of BJP’s cruelty,” he said.
To help Mayawati forget Guest House incident, SP leader in seemingly a warning message to his supporters said that any insult to Mayawatiji is a personal insult for him.
Yadav also hints at supporting Mayawati as a Prime Minister candidate. “Uttar Pradesh has produced numerous prime ministers in the past. You know whom I will support. I will be happy if another prime minister comes from the state,” he said.
“We are Samajwadis who are always together in sorrow and happiness. BJP can weave a conspiracy because of the alliance, riots and unrest might also be attempted. So I welcome the alliance again and assure that it will lead to the downfall of the BJP and its arrogant rule,” he added.
