New Delhi : Prepping for the next round of assembly elections later this year, Congress leaders have reached out to Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, or BSP, to explore the possibility of an alliance that the party hopes, would help them put a formidable front against the BJP, which has ruled Madhya Pradesh for 15 years.
The discussions were still in preliminary stages but the possibility that the two parties could end up working together in the assembly elections, considered the semi-finals for the 2019 elections, was "quite plausible", sources said.
The Congress outreach comes days after the party worked with the HD Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal Secular after the Karnataka assembly elections to form the government in Karnataka.
For a party that was often seen as domineering by smaller parties, the decision to give HD Kumaraswamy the pole position has helped the Congress re-position itself. It was also as part of this determination to work around sticking points to come up with a durable arrangement that the Congress on Friday gave the finance portfolio to the JDS
The Congress is keen on an alliance with Mayawati, particularly in Madhya Pradesh, since the Dalit powerhouse of Uttar Pradesh has been averaging nearly 7 per cent of the vote for the last 20 years. If these votes were to be added to the Congress’s 36 per cent vote share, the Congress thinks it would put the opposition within striking distance of blocking the BJP which secured 45 per cent votes.
Source: NDTV
