Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati will hold a joint press conference on Saturday in Uttar Pradesh state capital Lucknow. The media interaction is likely to be held at 12 pm. The two parties are likely to make a big announcement related to their alliance before the Lok Sabha elections 2019.
"We will hold joint PC tomorrow," said Yadav on Friday during Akhilesh Yadav Ki Chaupal event in Kannauj.
But will the alliance in Uttar Pradesh be able to defeat the BJP?
For this answer, we have to go back to the Lok Sabha elections 2014. In the last general polls, both the SP and the BSP contested elections separately. During 2014 polls, there were 13,88,10,557 voters. 57.99 per cent (8,05,00,789) used their franchise.
The BJP bagged 3,43,18,854. BSP got 1,59,14,194 votes and SP 1,79,88,967. In other words, the total votes secured by both these parties were 3,39,03,161, 415693 less than the BJP.
In terms of percentage, the BJP secured 42.63 per cent, the BSP and the SP together 42.11 per cent. Keeping these figures in mind we can say that SP-BSP may give a tough fight to the BJP but still, the saffron party is ahead.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Lok Sabha elections 2019 is scheduled to take place in the months of April-May.