SP, BSP bonhomie will end before 2019 LS polls: UP minister

The new found bonhomie between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will not last long and end before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Uttar Pradesh minister Swami Prasad Maurya claimed today.

"The SP and the BSP will perish by fighting each other. This electoral understanding is not based on issues, and any electoral understanding deprived of any issue is not long lasting," he told reporters here.

"By the time, the Lok Sabha election are round the corner, the electoral understanding will break," the state Labour and Employment minister said.

Replying to a question, Maurya said the BJP contests elections on the development plank and does not bank on caste and religion.

"Development is the identity of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been made his presence felt across the globe due to development," he said.

Maurya also advised his cabinet colleague Omprakash Rajbhar, the leader of BJP ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, to take up issues with the saffron party leadership instead of taking grievances to public forums.

"There is no point in putting one's point of view about the government at any public forum.

"If he (Rajbhar) has any issues, complaints or grievances, then he should take up the matter with the senior leadership of the party... Rajbhar is doing this to gather some cheap publicity," he said.

On the damage done to the government bungalow vacated by former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, the minister said, "The SP government had been identified with Gunda Raj, and the act of Akhilesh is as per the character of the party."