SP and BSP face key questions before finalising 2019 alliance in Uttar Pradesh

India वोट Kar | January 7, 2019

SP-BSP will have to resolve a big issues

Friday’s meeting in Delhi between SP president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati fuelled speculation that the two parties had settled a seat-sharing deal for Uttar Pradesh and could announce it soon. Several issues, however, still had to be agreed before any final announcement, according to sources.

The possible formula

Under one suggested arrangement, the SP and BSP would each contest 37 seats, leaving two each for the RLD and the Congress and two for smaller parties such as the Nishad Party or the Krishna Patel faction of Apna Dal. A BSP leader recalled that during alliance talks with the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, the BSP had insisted that Lok Sabha seat-sharing be settled at the same time.

Leadership and vote transfer

A bigger question was that if one party led the alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, who would lead it in the 2022 assembly election. Supporters of both parties doubted the alliance would last that long, which could make transferring votes between them harder.

The Congress view

Many UP Congress leaders felt their party would do better without an alliance. A UP-based Congress leader noted that when it contested alone the party won 10 seats in 1999, 9 in 2004 and 22 in 2009. “In 2014, we could win only two,” he said, adding that every party except the BJP lost that year. The Congress also argued that its 2017 assembly tie-up with the SP had disappointed, and that the Gorakhpur-Phulpur model would suit all sides better. In the 2018 by-elections there, the BSP backed SP candidates while the Congress fielded its own, which got around 20,000 votes. An SP leader said SP votes moved to the Congress but not the reverse, though the Congress could draw BJP votes, which would help the SP.