NEW DELHI: Unlike elections in the recent past in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is sensing that the party may face multiple rivals as ‘Mahagathbandhan (the grand alliance)’ may not take shape in the next year’s Assembly elections, with the likelihood of the Opposition parties looking at the post-poll realignment.
With the UP polls likely to set up the backdrop for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Opposition outfits are expected to size up their strengths in the state by contesting maximum number of seats, while drawing lessons from the past experiments of ‘Mahagathbandhan’ in which only the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) had gained, leaving the Samajwadi Party and the Congress marginalised.
“There’s least likelihood of the grand alliance taking shape for the UP polls among the Opposition constituents. The SP on the basis of the past experiences will not cede the space for the Congress, which will insist to contest at not less than 50 Assembly seats. The SP and BSP have tried tie ups in the past, and they now know that it doesn’t work in their favour in UP,” Anil Jain, the BJP Rajya Sabha MP from UP and the former general secretary of the party, told this newspaper.
Anil Jain, however, stated that the BJP is preparing for the UP Assembly elections with target to poll over 50 per cent vote share in Assembly constituencies.