Lucknow: An alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is expected to be announced next month after the result of the assembly elections in five states are declared.
Both the parties are likely to announce their political alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections probably on December 14, a senior leader of the SP told UNI here on Monday.The announcement of the formal alliance could be made either in Lucknow or Delhi by BSP chief Mayawati and SP president Akhilesh Yadav, he said.
The date has been chosen as Kharmas is commencing from December 15 and will last till January 15, Makar Sankranti next year.BSP had extended its support to the SP candidates for the by-elections to the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats held in March this year. SP had wrested both the seats from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In May, SP-supported Rashtriya Lok Dal candidate had wrested the Kairana Lok Sabha seat from the BJP. The SP had captured the Nurpur assembly seat in Bijnor district in the bypoll.
SP sources said the alliance will also include Rashtriya Lok Dal and Apna Dal (Krishna Patel faction) and two Lok Sabha seats are proposed to be offered to the Indian National Congress.
Both SP and BSP have fielded their candidates in all 230 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh ?damaging the electoral prospects of the Congress locked in a direct fight with the incumbent BJP.
The BSP, further damaging the Congress and benefiting the BJP, has entered into an alliance with former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi-led Janata Congress and is contesting all the seats in the Naxalite-affected state.
"We are waiting for the poll results of assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and as per our assessment Congress will do reasonably well in all the three states,'' said a senior SP leader adding '' we apprehend that the Congress will outrightly reject the offer of two Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh but we wish to keep the channels of communication open with the grand old party.''
On the other hand, Congress sources said the offer of two seats is 'ridiculous and the party rejects it with the contempt it deserves.'
A Congress leader said national parties are known for their habit of punching beyond their weight in the states where they barely exists while they are cagey in sharing their political space in their parent state.In all the three poll bound states of MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh,'' both the SP and BSP made unrealistic demands for the number of seats from us where they exist for the namesake while they want to give us only two Lok Sabha seats in UP where in 2009 parliament election we had won 21 seats on our own strength,'' said the Congress leader.
Moreover, the Congress leader said "the regional parties must realise that a viable and stable national political alternative needs an anchor to sustain which can only be provided by the Congress with nationwide catchment area". He added that same applies on the BJP, with nationwide catchment area is an anchor of the National Democratic Alliance.(UNI)