Highlights
- The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) announced on Saturday an alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections
- Both the parties —SP and Party — are coming together after 26 years to fight against a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), PM Narendra Modi's party, which won 71 of the 80 seats in the last Lok Sabha elections (2014).
- BSP and SP will contest on 38 seats each: Two Lok Sabha seats have left for other parties and Amethi and Rae Bareli have been left for Congress.
- SP president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati held a joint press meet in Lucknow to formally announce the tie-up.
Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Saturday announced that her party and the Samajwadi Party (SP) will fight together in an alliance in the upcoming Lok Sabha (Lower house of the Indian parliament) elections.
She described the alliance as a new "political revolution" that will rob Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party National President Amit Shah of their sleep.
BSP will fight on 38 seats and Samajwadi Party field candidates on 38, while two seats have been reserved. Congress will fight in the remaining two seats, Amethi and Rae Bareli.
Addressing a press conference jointly with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, she said the alliance has the capacity to stop the BJP from coming to power again.
Mamata welcomes BSP-SP alliance in UP
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday welcomed the BSP-SP alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
"I welcome the alliance of the SP and the BSP for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections," Banerjee tweeted.
Arch rivals for over 25 years, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) announced earlier in the day that they would contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls together in Uttar Pradesh, sharing 38 seats each of the 80 in the state, while leaving Rae Bareli and Amethi for the Congress, which has been kept out of the alliance.
Banerjee who has been advocating for an opposition alliance to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had earlier suggested the alliance in the northern state.
