New Delhi: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has allied with the Ajit Jogi-led Chhattisgarh Janata Congress (CJC) in Chhattisgarh for the upcoming assembly elections in the state. The alliance came through despite speculation that the Mayawati-led BSP was looking to partner with the Congress in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Announcing the alliance on Thursday at Lucknow, the leaders of both the parties said their alliance was an ideological partnership to end the three-time BJP rule in the state. “In the past 15 years, Chhattisgarh has seen a great deal of development imbalance under the BJP-led governments. The poor have become poorer and the rich richer. Chhattisgarh was created to benefit 2.5 crore people and not 2.5 people. The dependence on Delhi and the compulsions and inaction of BJP and Congress leaders have compromised the state’s development,” a press statement by both the parties said.
Justifying the alliance, the statement added, “The coming together of BSP and CJC will enable the unity of poor, Dalits, Adivasis, OBC, religious minorities and working class and both the parties will unitedly form a stable government with a big majority.”
The parties also said that Ajit Jogi will be their chief ministerial candidate. It was also decided that while the CJC will contest 55 seats, the BSP will contest the remaining 35.
Ajit Jogi will be the chief ministerial candidate for the BSP-CJC alliance. Credit: Facebook/Ajit Jogi
Mayawati’s recent statements that she was ready to go alone if her party does not get a “samaanjanak” (respectable) number of seats in the broad opposition alliance was interpreted as a dig at the Congress, which, according to sources, has been reticent in meeting Mayawati’s demand, especially in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
In each of these states, Mayawati is said to have demanded 50 seats but the Congress is unwilling to give the BSP anything more than 35. That is why, many political observers feel that by striking an alliance with the CJC, Mayawati may well be putting pressure on the Congress to reconsider the BSP’s demand in MP and Rajasthan, where the stakes for the Congress are much higher than in Chhattisgarh.
The question that arises thus is: Is Chhattisgarh, where the BSP is relatively weak compared to its strength in MP and Rajasthan, the bargaining chip for Mayawati?
In a recent interview to The Wire, the official spokesperson of the BSP, Sudhindra Bhadoria, said that by supporting the grand alliance in the by-polls of Gorakhpur, Phulpur, Kairana and the assembly constituency of Nurpur in Haryana, the BSP had already sacrificed its interests once and now is the turn of parties like the Samajwadi Party and the Congress to show a big heart and give Mayawati the respect she deserves as the senior-most leader among Dalits.
The alliance with the CJC will again place the BSP firmly in a possible third front rather than a Congress-led coalition. She had earlier chosen to go with the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka and the Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana. It may be noted that Ajit Jogi floated his party after being expelled from the Congress a few years ago and has since then been pitching his party as the alternative to the Congress-BJP binary in the mineral rich state where adivasis account for 30.6% of the population.
Several Congress leaders had told The Wire that Ajit Jogi has been sending feelers to the Congress high command for a possible alliance against the BJP. However, the grand-old party’s state leadership, which itself is said to be divided in at least three factions, has been adamant about keeping Jogi out of any political partnership. Party leaders in Chhattisgarh say Jogi had worked against the party’s candidates in the last assembly elections, which they think was the reason for the BJP’s victory.
It is to be noted that in Chhattisgarh, the difference in vote shares in the last assembly elections between both the parties was less than one percent. They also allege that Jogi had been actively working against the organisation, because of which he was expelled. Yet, he enjoys considerable strength in the 40-odd seats where Satnamis, a Scheduled Caste group, and Adivasis are dominant.
In the 2013 election, the BJP won 49 seats with 41.04% of the vote, the Congress 39 with 40.29% of the vote, while the BSP picked up one seat with 4.27% of the vote. One seat was won by an independent.
The alliance between the BSP and the CJC opens up the route for a triangular fight in the assembly elections this year. The Congress will now look to consolidate its own traditional vote base and hope that the BSP-CJC combine will eat in to the BJP’s vote banks.
