In another setback to Congress’ dream of united opposition, Bahujan Samajwadi Party has denied any possibility of alliance with the Congress party for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh state assembly polls this year. BSP declared that it will contest on all 230 seats by itself. The BSP state president Narmada Prasad Ahirwar told the PTI, “I was asked by the media that Congress leaders were saying that there are discussions underway with the BSP for an alliance for the next assembly elections. I clarified that we are not in discussions at the state level and, I think, neither at the central leadership level.” He further added, “As things stand today, we are going to contest all 230 Assembly seats. I have received no directives in this connection (alliance) from the central leadership.” This is a huge setback to the Congress which was eyeing on the BSP’s vote-share to defeat the BJP in the state.
This denial of the BSP to come up with the Congress party is itself a big blow to the basic idea of united opposition. The ego issues and self interests of each and every party are coming in the way of opposition unity. The Congress refused to form an alliance with the BSP in the Rajasthan, which goes on to show their dedication towards opposition unity. It’s just a glimpse of the selfish nature of Congress. They want the BSP only where it could be beneficial. This might have been one of the reasons why BSP is not willing to form an alliance with the Congress in Madhya Pradesh.
In the UP too, the SP-BSP coalition indicated that they may contest on 75 seats and remaining seats have been left for the other coalition partners. According to media reports, the INC will not be the part of the grand coalition against the BJP. Grand coalition would comprise of only the regional parties to challenge the BJP, this means that the Congress would not have any role to play in this grand coalition. It would be a huge embarrassment for the grand old party that they have been reduced to such a low. In Phulpur and Gorakhpur by polls, the INC received hardly 20,000 votes. The INC has become irrelevant in the UP and it is on its way to become irrelevant in other states as well but still it’s not willing to give up its ego and has refused to learn any lessons.
All this is leading towards three-cornered fight in the 2019 general elections with NDA, Congress and the united opposition.
Meanwhile, the state Congress claimed that it never initiated any talks of alliance with the BSP. Manak Agarwal, Madhya Pradesh Congress media department’s chief said, “We never named any party. The Congress only said that we would try to have an alliance with political parties with a similar ideology. We never mentioned the BSP’s name. It will depend on the situation when we enter the election phase.”
In the 2013 Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, vote share of the INC and the BSP was 36.38 per cent and 6.29 per cent respectively against the BJP’s 44.88 per cent vote share. In the 2008 Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, the Congress polled 32.85 percent votes and the BSP polled 8.97 per cent votes. Total vote percent of the BSP and the Congress was more than the BJP’s 37.64 percent.