Maya snub end of grand alliance?

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, September 21

Is BSP president Mayawati’s alliance with 72-year-old Ajit Jogi’s Chhattisgarh Janata Congress and her decision to go it alone in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections the end of the road for a grand alliance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls?

Die-hard optimists are still not ready to arrive at such a conclusion. Director Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute Badri Narayan admits signals emanating from the BSP are confusing but he is in no hurry to come to any conclusion just yet.

A Samajwadi Party spokesperson sought to play down the matter, calling it the failure of the Congress and BSP to work out an electoral understanding.

However, the brave front barely disguises a huge apprehension that Behenji’s decision in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh has set the tone for the forthcoming Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha elections.

A senior SP leader admitted that the positive mood that the Opposition victories in UP’s Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana besides Karnataka had set in the nation giving the hope that a grand alliance could defeat the BJP has been squandered away by this move.

A political analyst pointed out that the manner in which the BSP shared the news speaks of a “dark plan”. Mayawati did not call a press conference but invited only one news channel to announce the significant decision to ally with Jogi, who was also present.

The press note came on a plain sheet of paper, not on the BSP official letterhead.

The Chhattisgarh Janata Congress has been given 55 seats, while the BSP has kept 35. While Jogi’s party is yet to make its electoral debut, the BSP has one seat in the state Assembly and had polled 4.27 per cent of votes in 2014.

Alliance with the Congress or any other party is not likely to happen in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan as well. While the BSP is yet to officially make an announcement, sources in the know say it is a matter of time that Mayawati’s game plan will fall into place.