United opposition would have given tough time to BJP

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party and BSP snapped alliance and Congress chose to fight the UP byelections alone after a state party unit revamp, but a combined opposition would have given a tough challenge to BJP in at least six of the 11 seats had they fought together, if one goes by 2017 UP assembly poll results when BJP stormed back to power after 15 years with an overwhelming majority.

A seat-wise analysis of 2017 results shows that other than Jalalpur and Rampur, won by BSP and SP, respectively, BJP vote share was less than that of combined Opposition on four seats - Zaidpur (Barabanki), Ghosi (Mau), Pratapgarh and Gangoh (Saharanpur).

In Zaidpur, BJP candidate Upendra Singh secured 43.04% votes, which was less than total of 32% votes obtained by Tanuj Punia of Congress and 18.88% of BSP's Meeta Gautam together. SP had not contested as it had a pre-poll alliance with Congress.

In Ghosi seat, the combined vote share of BSP candidate Abbas Ansari, son of mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari (33.48%) and SP candidate Sudhakar (24.68%) was much higher than BJP's Phagu Chauchan who won by securing 36.78% of the total votes polled. Similarly, in Pratapgarh BJP's ally Apna Dal candidate Sangam Lal Gupta (now Lok Sabha MP) got 44.17% votes, less than 25.29% of SP's Nagendra Singh and 22.82% of BSP's Ashok Tripathi taken together.

In Gangoh, SP also fielded its candidate who bagged 18.92% votes, while Nauman Masood of Congress polled 23.95% and BSP's Mahipal Singh got 17.44% totaling more than BJP candidate Pradeep Kumar.

BSP state president Munqad Ali said the byelections are more or less 'sarkari chunav' and accused BJP of misusing government machinery to win. "Therefore, it hardly matters if there is an alliance or not," he said. A senior SP leader said an alliance with BSP is not must for the party to win election. "SP followed alliance dharma in Lok Sabha polls. Our tie-up with BSP ended, but with RLD it remains intact," he said.