SP, BSP declare tie-up sans Congress for Lok Sabha polls

Lucknow, Jan 12 Once-arch opponents Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) announced Saturday their tie-up in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, sharing 38 seats each and keeping the Congress out of the union.

The parties, be that as it may, said they would not handle hopefuls in Amethi and Rae Bareli, spoken to by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. They additionally left two seats, out of 80, for littler partners.

Making the announcement at a joint press conference with SP president Akhilesh Yadav here, BSP chief Mayawati stated, "This...will rob 'guru-chela' - Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah - of their sleep."

"I have full confidence that similarly as our alliance defeated the BJP in the Lok Sabha bypolls, we will crush the saffron party in the general elections," she stated, alluding to the BJP's defeat in Phulpur, Gorakhpur and Kairana parliamentary bypolls.

Clarifying why the Congress was not included in the alliance, she said that during the Congress rule over the years, poverty, unemployment, and corruption grew and there had been scams in various defence deals.

She also said that in case of a tie-up with the Congress in the past, the party did not benefit.

"In the past I have seen that our votes get exchanged to the Congress, yet not the other way around. We don't pick up from coalition with Congress, while vote move is flawless in SP-BSP tie-up," Mayawati said.

Drawing a parallel between the BJP and the Congress, Mayawati said the Congress had forced the Emergency while the BJP is in charge of an undeclared Emergency.

The joint press conference was held at a posh hotel here after top leadership of both the parties had met in New Delhi as of late to talk about expansive parameters of the coalition to go up against the BJP unitedly in the Lok Sabha elections.

In 2014, the BJP had won 71 seats in Uttar Pradesh while its partner Apna Dal bagged two. The Samajwadi Party won 5 seats and the Congress two, while the BSP drew a blank.

Responding to the development, senior BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad stated, "The SP and BSP have allied neither for the nation nor for Uttar Pradesh, but for their survival. They realize they can't battle Modi all alone and their resistance to him is the sole base of their coalition.