Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav announces grand alliance prior to LS elections

Guwahati, 12 January 2019:

Two powerhouses of Uttar Pradesh politics, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) are coming together to form a ‘Gatbandhan’ and contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2019.

SP’s Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati, once bitter rival but now turned partners-in-polls, today announced their mega alliance thus delivering the first opposition front to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming elections.

Mayawati announced that the two parties will contest in 38 seats each out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. Other smaller parties like the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), led by Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Chaudhary, will be accommodated with two seats whilethe Congress has been kept out of the alliance.

However, the SP-BSP alliance has decided not to field candidates in the Gandhi stronghold of Amethi and Rae Bareily.

Following the announcement, former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav said, "Uttar Pradesh has produced numerous prime ministers in the past. You know whom I will support. I will be happy if another prime minister comes from the state."

"We are Samajwadis who are always together in sorrow and happiness. BJP can weave a conspiracy because of the alliance, riots and unrest might also be attempted. So I welcome the alliance again and assure that it will lead to the downfall of the BJP and its arrogant rule," he further added.

Expressing her views on the alliance, Mayawati said, "The people in UP are upset with the policies of the BJP. Our alliance has tasted success in the by-polls elections in the state. The success of our alliance can help stop the BJP from forming the government at the Centre".