BSP won’t shut door on ties with Cong, SP

LUCKNOW: Even as it entered into a pre-poll alliance with HD Deve Gowda led Janata Dal (Secular) for Karnataka assembly elections on Thursday, the Bahujan Samaj Party kept its door ajar for a prospective alliance with other parties, including the Congress and Samajwadi Party in UP, for 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Responding to a query on the possibility of BSP and SP coming together, BSP national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra said there was no plans of entering into an alliance ‘as of now’.“The party leadership would take a decision about any kind of alliance as and when required,” he said.
BSP’s stand vis-a-vis alliance with the Congress and/ or SP came two days after SP chief Akhilesh Yadav called for unity among the opposition parties, including the BSP, to defeat the BJP in next year’s Lok Sabha elections. Akhilesh is reported to have said that he had “good relations” with his ‘Buaji’ (Mayawati).
BSP insiders said the party won’t like to stand isolated and send out a wrong message to anti-BJP forces. “The party cannot stay away from opposition unity. Alliance or no alliance is something that can be decided at later stages,” a senior BSP functionary said. Sources said while some party functionaries favour the alliance with the SP and Congress, Mayawati is averse to the idea on the basis of past experiences where the allies did not transfer their base votes.
Mayawati has said that she would not share a political platform with any party until a seat sharing formula is worked out. The condition stands fulfilled in case of Karnataka with BSP agreeing to contest 20 seats, including eight reserved. This is in contrast to 2013 assembly elections in Karnataka when BSP not only failed to open its account but also lost its deposits on 174 out of 175 seats it contested. Mishra said the BSP chief will now share the stage with JD(S) chief HD Deve Gowda and address a joint rally in Bengaluru on February 17.
Last year, BSP had earlier initiated talks with the Congress for a pre-poll alliance in Gujarat elections. But the plan fell flat after the Congress refused to give away a single assembly seat to the BSP.