SP-BSP honeymoon over as Mayawati hints at dumping 'mahagathbandhan'

BSP likely to fight coming UP bypolls on 11 seats independently

After facing a virtual rout in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls at the hands of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Monday hinted at dumping the ‘mahagathbandhan’ (grand alliance) comprising BSP and the Samajwadi Party.

The alliance was announced on January 12, 2019, in the run up to the general elections and was touted as a formidable challenger to counter the rollicking election machinery of BJP in UP, which elects 80 Lok Sabha members, and is key to government formation at the Centre.

In the backdrop of BSP’s dismal performance in UP, Mayawati today convened a meeting of senior party functionaries in Delhi to discuss the factors behind the rout.

Mayawati, at the meeting, observed that the grand alliance had failed to deliver for the BSP, since the alliance partners had failed to ensure a transfer of their respective vote banks, even as she exhorted party leaders to galvanise cadres for contesting the upcoming elections independently without falling back upon any alliance.

According to sources, she underlined that SP president Akhilesh Yadav could not facilitate the victory of his wife Dimple Yadav from the party’s turf of Kannauj, where she was defeated by BJP nominee Subrat Pathak by a margin of over 12,000 votes, despite the Congress not fielding its candidate in her support.

In the Lok Sabha election, while Mayawati’s BSP managed to win 10 seats, Akhilesh Yadav’s SP could bag only five. The RLD, led by Ajit Singh, did not win a single seat | photo: reuters/file

She also noted that Akhilesh had failed to prevent the division of Yadav votes. She alleged that Akhilesh’s estranged uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav, who had floated Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL), had managed to transfer Yadav votes to the BJP and thus hurt the grand alliance in the state.

Under the alliance, BSP and SP had fought 38 and 37 seats, respectively, in UP, while leaving 2 and 3 seats for Congress (Rae Bareli and Amethi) and ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), respectively.

In the elections, while the BSP won 10 seats, SP could barely manage to retain its 2014 tally of 5 and RLD drew a blank. Congress could win only a single seat at Rae Bareli (Sonia Gandhi) even as party president Rahul Gandhi lost to BJP’s Smriti Irani from Amethi by a margin of 55,000 votes.

In contrast, BJP cornered 62 seats on its own, while its ally Apna Dal (S) won 2 other seats, making it 64 for the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), although the tally was 9 less as compared to 2014 polls, when the NDA had emerged victorious on 73 seats. At the time, BSP had failed to win any seat, while SP won 5 seats, followed by Congress with 2 seats.

Peeved at the bleak Lok Sabha results, Mayawati recently sacked BSP election coordinators of 6 states and state presidents of two states. She removed party coordinators of Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Odisha, and sacked state presidents of Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, where the party failed to win any seats.

Meanwhile, BSP is likely to contest the upcoming UP bypolls on 11 seats independently. These seats would fall vacant once legislators of different parties, who are now elected to Parliament, resign from their respective seats.