Mayawati & Akhilesh's Mahagathbandhan fail to stop Modi's juggernaut

Whatever little gains accrued by the anti-BJP and anti-Congress alliance have gone to Mayawati's party

Created with the intention of under-cutting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, the Mahagathbandhan seems to have self-destructed into oblivion. Probably, the only gains of what Modi called the “unholy and adulterated alliance” seems to have accrued to Mayawati and her party.

Leads show that the Samajwadi Party (SP), which was expected to gain big from this alliance, will end up winning no more than six seats in Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will end up winning not more than 12 seats in different states.  In Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 legislators to the Lok Sabha and is India’s most electorally crucial state, the BSP won nothing in 2014. The SP, meanwhile, managed to win just five seats in 2014. The SP, which was hoping to be the big gainer of this alliance, hasn't gained at all  by joining forces with Mayawati's party.

BSP’s numbers are dismal considering that Mayawati’s party contested  351 out of the 543 seats across 11 states in India. The other key constituent of the alliance was Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) which was contesting three seats in Uttar Pradesh. Afternoon leads show that the RLD is trailing in all three seats it is contesting in Uttar Pradesh. The party’s tallest leader, Ajit Singh is trailing in Muzaffarnagar. Ajit Singh’s son, contesting from Baghpat, and the party’s Mathura candidate are trailing as well.

There were nine other smaller parties including two Communist outfits that were part of this coalition contesting in states like Telangana, Punjab and Haryana. None of these parties have managed to even make a dent on the BJP’s chances in any of the states.