LUCKNOW: The Lucknow visit of Telangana's Jan Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan has triggered the speculations about Bahujan Samaj Party's prospective tie-up with the actor-turned-politician's party ahead of assembly elections in southern state due in December.
Kalyan, who was in the state capital on Wednesday, reportedly met senior BSP leaders days after meeting party chief Mayawati in Delhi. Jan Sena Party Chief Pawan Kalyan, who is also the younger brother of Telugu cine star Chiranjeevi, had launched his party in 2014. Pawan met some senior BSP leaders in Lucknow and also visited Dalit memorials, which were built during the BSP regime, in Lucknow.
Although the BSP has already announced its 119 candidates for Telangana state assembly elections due on December 7, 2018, sources claim that if the blue brigade succeeds in cobbling up an alliance with Jan Sena Party, it may sacrifice a few seats for its partner. The prospective alliance will, undoubtedly, place BSP chief Mayawati on a national pedestal and will give a moral boost to her efforts to have trucks with more and more regional parties, claim political scientists. "Such tie-ups will prove beneficial for the BSP chief in 2019 Lok Sabha elections and strengthen her position as the only dalit leader with pan India appeal," says a political commentator.
BSP has appointed party's Rajya Sabha MP Vir Singh in-charge for Telangana assembly elections and the party is likely to sound the poll bugle in the state on October 28. Interestingly, in 2014 assembly elections in Telangana, the BSP had won two seats, Sirpur and Nirmal, even amidst an overwhelming mandate to the TRS.If the BSP-Jan Sena Party alliance happens, Telangana will be the second state after poll-bound Chhattisgarh, where BSP will enter into a truck with a regional party.
Notably, the BSP chief had recently announced that her party would not strike any alliance with the Congress in the upcoming state assembly elections in various states. In Chhattisgarh, Mayawati has chosen Ajit Jogi's Janata Congress Chhattisgarh as its alliance partner over Congress while in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, she has decided to go it alone in the polls due in the months of November and December.The experience of tying up with regional parties has paid the BSP. Early this year, the blue brigade had contested Karnataka Assembly elections in alliance with Janata Dal (Secular).
The BSP managed to open account after its state president N Mahesh won the Kollegal seat by securing around 40.26% of the total votes in the constituency. His drubbed his nearest rival Congress's AR Krishna Murthy who got 32.07% of the total votes.
The lone BSP MLA had joined the Kumaraswamy-led JD(S)-Congress coalition government as a minister but he quit after Mayawati charted a different course for MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and decided against going along with the Congress. BSP is already in a tie-up with Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in Haryana.