Sleepless Nights for Modi-Shah: Mayawati, Akhilesh on Alliance

The Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party, two major political parties in Uttar Pradesh, announced their alliance for 2019 Lok Sabha elections on Saturday, 12 January.

“This press conference will give PM Modi, Amit Shah sleepless nights," BSP supremo Mayawati said sitting next to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav while making the announcement in Lucknow’s Taj Mahal Hotel.

Both parties have been locking horns for the past two decades in the state – but now they have buried the hatchet. They are set to announce their tie-up for the general elections, keeping Congress out of it.

Here are the key highlights of the alliance announcement:

• This joint press conference will rob 'guru-chela', Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, of their sleep
• We will fight BJP's authoritarian rule. Our common goal is to defeat BJP and decimate their arrogance
• BJP has created an atmosphere of unrest and fear, dividing people on the lines of caste, community. There has been an increase in attacks on minorities, women and even children. Farmers are committing suicide because of their policies
• Congress not included in SP-BSP alliance in UP as during its rule poverty, unemployment and corruption grew
• BSP and SP will contest 38 seats each
• Out of 80 LS seats, SP-BSP has left 2 for smaller parties and won't contest in Amethi, Rae Bareli represented by Rahul, Sonia Gandhi
• Both Congress and BJP have been involved in major corruption scandals
• Congress imposed an official emergency, while BJP imposed an unofficial emergency

Mayawati, known for her mercurial temperament, had put the Congress recently on notice by threatening to pull the rug from under the newly formed Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan governments if the cases slapped on Dalits last year were not withdrawn.

She had also admitted earlier that she had reluctantly supported the Congress in both states, just to keep BJP at bay.

Akhilesh Yadav has also recently red-flagged the relations with Congress after the latter did not consider its lone legislator in MP for a ministerial berth. Yadav in fact went to the extent of saying that by doing so, the Congress had cleared his way in UP.

(With inputs from PTI, IANS and ANI)