The ambitious alliance between Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) and Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) was expected to take Uttar Pradesh by storm. The Mahagathbandhan, as the grand alliance was called, openly pitted itself against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) offering a united opposition to PM Narendra Modi and UP CM Adityanath.
But at the time of going to press, the BJP swept the state with the party and its allies leading in 59 of the 80 seats. The BSP was leading on 10 and the SP on 6 at the time. Only Sonia Gandhi of the INC managed to win a seat in the state, with Rahul Gandhi losing on his home turf of Amethi to BJP’s Smriti Irani.
It appears that the Congress fielding candidates in many constituencies, ate into the votes of the Mahagathbandhan ultimately benefiting the BJP. This appeared to be the case in Barabanki, Bijnore, Kairana and Sitapur. Questions are now being raised about the future of this alliance and if it will remain intact till 2022 when assembly elections are scheduled to take place in UP.