Lucknow: In a major realignment of political forces in Uttar Pradesh, the two bitter rivals Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party  (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav have decided to come together for upcoming bypolls to Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats slated to be held on March 11, thus setting the tone of an anti-BJP alliance for 2019 Lok Sabha election.

However, for now, the alliance will be at the local level and the announcement to this effect was made by district coordinators of the BSP in Gorakhpur on Sunday. The bypolls to Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats were necessitated after being vacated by UP CM Yogi Adityanath and Deputy CM Keshav Maurya when they took up the membership of UP council in September last year.

As per the BSP sources, the decision to support SP candidates in the bypolls  at the local level was taken by party chief Mayawati after a series of marathon meetings at her residence in state capital Lucknow since Thursday.

“It is an effort to set a mere narrative ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections by the two parties. This new development is not going to change much on the ground in eastern UP bypolls though,” says a prominent political observer SR Darapuri while commenting on the emerging equation. He adds that BSP hardly has any prominent presence in Gorakhpur region and it is a bastion of Yogi Adityanath who has a strong hold on eastern UP.

While justifying the ebbing bitterness between the two rivals, Samajwadi Party leader Sudhir Panwar feels it to be an imperative step to stop the resurgent saffron march before next Lok Sabha elections in the country. “Mayawati has never criticised Samajwadi Party’s policies.  Since BSP is not contesting bypolls, its vote bank was in dilemma. Now Mayawati’s call to support SP will give it a direction,” says Panwar.

However, this is for the first time after 1995 that the two parties talked to each other giving a halt to mutual Bua-Bhatija jibes and bitter sarcastic exchange of rhetorics which were witnessed during the 2017 UP Assembly elections.

It may be recalled that in 1993, SP-BSP had stitched an alliance in UP and formed the government with Mulayam Singh Yadav as CM. But it fell apart after BSP withdrew support in 1995 and SP supporters attacked the BSP chief in the infamous ‘guest house kand’ on June 2, 1995. Since then both the parties have been locked in a bitter political rivalry in the state.

The Samajwadi Party has fielded Pravin Nishad from Gorakhpur and Nagendra Singh Patel from Phulpur. It is yet to be seen, however, if the candidates' list will be revised after the announcement of a pre-poll alliance between SP and BSP.

Many political pundits also attribute the SP-BSP tie-up to latter’s displeasure with Congress for inducting former BSP stalwart Naseemuddin Siddiqui. Siddiqui, who was a staunch Mayawati supporter and loyalist at one point of time, was expelled by her last year after UP Assembly elections for indulging in alleged anti-party activities. For BJP, Gorakhpur assumes significance as it is the bastion of the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, who has represented it in Lok Sabha five times. Prior to Adityanath, Gorakhpur was thrice represented in the Parliament by his mentor Avaidyanath.

Phulpur, on the other hand, was once represented by Jawaharlal Nehru. It had for the first time witnessed a saffron surge in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when Maurya emerged victorious. Voting for the Lok Sabha by-elections will be held on 11 March, while counting of votes will be held on 14 March.