Lucknow:Undeterred by the humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, the SP-BSP alliance have now started focusing on a mini-assembly elections to be held in Uttar Pradesh when bypolls to eleven seats would be held in the next six months ' time.
Leaders of both SP and BSP claims that Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati are determined to take forward their alliance to the 2022 assembly elections and this bypolls in 11 seats would be a testing ground for them.
The first opportunity for the alliance to test their partnership at the state level after the Lok Sabha debacle would be the assembly bypolls coming up in the state after 11 sitting MLAs won in the Lok Sabha elections and would now vacate their assembly seats.
As per BSP sources, before leaving for Delhi on Saturday, Mayawati told party members that the alliance with SP and RLD would continue.
"Now all the eyes are on the results of 11 assembly seats which will be going to bypolls as the MLAs were elected to Lok Sabha. The outcome will be crucial for the alliance in the state," said a BSP leader on condition of anonymity.
Though the alliance didn't win the expected number of seats, the tie-up proved a profitable venture for the BSP which increased its Lok Sabha seat count from zero to 10. But Samajwadi Party wasn't so lucky since Akhilesh's wife Dimple Yadav, and cousins Dharmendra Yadav and Akshay Yadav ended up losing their seats to the BJP.
Among the MLAs elected to the Lok Sabha are members of the Yogi Adityanath cabinet as well. Rita Bahuguna Joshi won from Allahabad and will now vacate Lucknow Cantt assembly seat. Similarly Satyadev Pachauri won from Kanpur and his assembly seat, Govind Nagar, will witness bypolls. SP Singh Baghel was elected from Agra and will vacate the assembly seat of Tundla.
Other BJP lawmakers who will have to vacate their assembly seats are Pratapgarh MLA Sangam Lal Gupta (Pratapgarh Lok Sabha seat), Saharanpur MLA Pradeep Kumar (Kairana), Chitrakoot MLA RK Singh Patel (Banda), Barabanki MLA Upendra Rawat (Barabanki), Bahraich MLA Akshyawar Lal (Bahraich) and Aligarh MLA Rajvir Singh (Hathrah).
The lone SP MLA who has been elected to the Lok Sabha is party heavyweight Azam Khan from Rampur. BSP MLA from Jalalpur, Ritesh Pandey, is now the MP from Ambedkar Nagar.(UNI)