As part of the preparations for the alliance, Yadav family members like Shivpal have set aside their own differences as well as those with Mayawati.
New Delhi: Now that the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance is official, the two parties that were bitter rivals until a few months back have begun preparing the ground for the big battle they have to fight together – Lok Sabha elections due next year.
The preperations have begun a year in advance as the two parties have distinct characteristics, styles of functioning and cadres at the grassroots level, not to mention political ideologies and years of conditioning, and these have to come together to present and work as a united, homogenous face.
SP president Akhilesh Yadav launched this major political reinvention in his party with a three-day meeting of party leaders and workers in Lucknow Monday. The primary objective was to lay the ground for a seat-sharing arrangement — a difficult task given the animosity between the two parties’ leaders and cadres over the last quarter of a century, and the possibility of leaders being miffed when they miss out on tickets.
BSP supremo Mayawati has already held a similar meeting of party workers on 26 March, instructing them to work closely with the SP on the ground. All zonal coordinators of the party were asked to ensure things progress smoothly.
What happened at the SP meeting
On the first day of the SP meeting, the focus was on leaders and workers from non-Yadav OBC communities. This was followed by the party’s core constituency — Yadavs and Muslims — on 10 and 11 April respectively.
Sources said Akhilesh’s message to the workers and leaders was to have perfect harmony and coordination with the BSP on the ground.
At the top level of the party too, the effort is to bring everyone together, with members of the SP’s first family setting aside their internal differences as well as their old bad blood with BSP supremo Mayawati. Shivpal Yadav, who did not see eye to eye with nephew Akhilesh before and after last year’s assembly elections, has buried the hatchet and worked hard to garner support for the BSP’s candidate in the recently-held Rajya Sabha polls. Shivpal and Akhilesh reportedly sat together at the three-day meeting.
However, Uday Veer Singh, MLC and spokesperson for the SP, sought to play down the importance of the meeting. “The party always conducts such meetings in order to have a direct conversation with our cadre,” he said.
Sources also said the party knows it is inevitable that some leaders will take ticket snubs to heart, but is working out a strategy to keep them satisfied and within its fold.
Mamata taking keen interest
The efforts by the SP and BSP coincide with the keen interest being taken by Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, one of the biggest advocates of a multi-party anti-BJP coalition.
At a recent meeting of opposition leaders in Delhi, Banerjee had thrown her weight behind the union of the two arch-rivals, hinting that for any anti-BJP front to take off, a pre-poll alliance was necessary in UP.
Banerjee is said to be in constant touch with Akhilesh and Mayawati.
“We will have a meeting in Lucknow after the MLC elections in UP on 26 April, most likely early next month,” said TMC MP Dinesh Trivedi. “Our leader (Banerjee) will be visiting Lucknow for the meeting.”