Lucknow: After the Congress Working Committee decided to project Rahul Gandhi as the party’s PM candidate for 2019, the ball is in BSP chief Mayawati’s court now. At a recent meet in Lucknow, the BSP had decided to project Mayawati as its prime ministerial candidate.
The BSP which is expected to be a part of an alliance with the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections has not yet officially reacted to Rahul being projected as a PM candidate. Speaking to News18, BSP spokesperson Sudhindra Bhadhauria said, “The matter has come to our knowledge and final decision will be taken by BSP chief Mayawati.”
This might also change equations in the alliance talks between the Congress and the BSP for the upcoming state elections in Madhya Pradesh. The CWC’s resolution on Rahul Gandhi has certainly confused both the BSP and the SP.
SP spokesperson Sunil Singh Sajan said the decision to project Rahul as PM candidate is by the CWC and not the grand alliance. “The SP hasn’t yet decided if it will tie-up with the Congress. That decision will be taken by party president Akhilesh Yadav soon. The decision to name Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate is taken by CWC. How can they decide who will be the PM face of the grand alliance?”
Sources say the reason the SP is not too keen on an alliance with the Congress because of its experience of the tie-up during the 2017 Assembly polls in UP and its projections for 2019.
The sources said many senior SP leaders feel that an alliance with the Congress will not go with the ‘political narrative’ that the SP-BSP combine want to make against the BJP. They are planning a strategy of uniting Dalits, backwards and Muslims against the upper castes, which have traditionally been seen to be with the BJP.
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