Mumbai, Mar 19 (UNI) Replicating their party's grand alliance in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will ally to contest all 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
The alliance was announced here on Tuesday.
BSP leader Ashok Sidharth and SP Maharashtra unit president Abu Asim Azmi, while addressing a joint press conference said that the alliance of both the parties has been finalised by the SP and BSP central leaderships following this they will contest all 48 seats.
Azmi said he would not contest the Lok Sabha polls as he was aware of the political realities wherein it was tough for Muslim candidates to get votes from Hindu voters.
He further said that the alliance will contest all 48 seats and a six-member committee has been formed for seat-sharing.
"We will be very tactful and the candidate will opt for the symbol of the party which is strong in a particular constituency. For instance, in Nagpur, a SP nominee can contest using the BSP symbol, while it may be vice-versa at Nanded," he explained.
BSP MP Siddharth alleged the Congress’ policies for Muslims, Dalits and backward classes remained on paper and could not penetrate to the ground level, adding that the SP-BSP will ensure these policies reach the common man.
He said BSP chief Mayawati will address a public rally in Nagpur on April 5 and the party would also request SP chief Akhilesh Yadav to be part of it.
Earlier, the SP was trying to strike an understanding with the Congress-NCP for an alliance in return for a seat from Mumbai, while the BSP had announced its plans to contest alone.
The BSP, whose founder Kanshiram, began his political activism from Pune, has a committed vote base in most constituencies. However, despite playing the spoiler, it has drawn a blank in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in spite of a committed cadre base and a transferable share of votes.
In the 2014 Assembly elections, the BSP's Kishore Gajbhiye was at number two in the Nagpur North constituency, which was represented by then Congress minister Nitin Raut.
Despite the Shiv Sena and BJP sweeping all 11 Lok Sabha seats in Vidarbha, the BSP, which has been seen as a spoiler by the Congress and NCP in previous elections, managed to hold on to its base by getting around 95,000 votes in some seats.
The SP, which has some base in North Indian Muslims in Mumbai and Thane has one legislator Azmi, who represents the Mankhurd-Shivajinagar constituency. The emergence of the All Indian Majlis E Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), led by the aggressive Owaisi brothers from Hyderabad, has eaten into much of
SP's presence.
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