Uttar Pradesh bypoll results: Template of opposition (dis)unity

If the experiment of the SP-BSP tie-up works, it could provide a base for the battered and scattered opposition to join forces against the BJP before the big battle in 2019

Speaking on Motion of Thanks to Governor Ram Naik’s address to a joint Budget Session of the Uttar Pradesh legislature, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath displayed his signature combative swagger in attacking the opposition benches. The priest-turned-politician had reserved the most acerbic verbal salvos to criticise, according to him, the “unholy” alliance between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for the Gorakhpur and Phulpur (Allahabad) parliamentary bypolls.
 
Adityanath not only took swipe at the SP-BSP alliance, he sarcastically reminded BSP leader Lalji Verma of the infamous 1995 State Guest House incident and the threat perpetrated by