LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati on Saturday announced their alliance for the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh. The two leaders addressed a joint press conference at a hotel in Lucknow.
BSP Supremo Mayawati announced that both parties will contest 38 seats each out of the state’s 80 parliamentary constituencies.
The parties kept the Congress out of the alliance, but said they will not field candidates in Amethi and Raebareli, represented by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
The two parties first publically spoke about the alliance in March last year and then experimented with it in 3 Lok Sabha bypolls and one state assembly bypolls. The BJP lost all those seats to the alliance.
Mayawati, while announcing tie-up with Samajwadi Party, confirmed that Congress is not part of the alliance.“All sections unhappy with Congress. Both Congress and BJP have similar policies and both of them are involved in corruption,” said Mayawati.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for playing caste politics and ignoring farmers distress in the country.BJP is now dividing Gods into caste, says Akhilesh Yadav
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party and Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party have formed alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls only for its survival.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Saturday welcomed the SP-BSP announcing an alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath said there is a “need of alliances in the entire country” to defeat BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
BSP state president RS Kushwaha and SP state president Naresh Uttam along with senior BSP and SP leaders have arrived at the venue.
