Losing 2022 rainbow alliance with OBC parties, SP falls back on Congress for 2024

In the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party (SP) had aligned with smaller parties who have support bases within the OBC groups in the state. These alliances had helped the SP increase its tally and vote share, even though the BJP clinched the polls.

However, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the SP has lost the support of most of these parties, retaining only the support of Mahan Dal, which although not in a formal alliance, has decided to extend support to the party in some constituencies.

Currently, the SP is in an alliance with only the Congress in UP. As per their seat-sharing agreement, the SP is contesting on 63 seats, while the Congress will be in the fray from 17 seats.

In the 2022 Assembly polls, the SP had an umbrella alliance with different regional parties claiming to have influence over OBC voters — the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), Janvadi Socialist Party (now named Jan Janvadi Party), Apna Dal (Kamerawadi), and Mahan Dal.

Of the state’s 403 seats, the SP won 111 seats with 32% vote share, while the RLD got 8 and the SBSP got 6. The other parties in the alliance did not win any seat.The BJP won the elections, bagging 255 seats with 41.29% votes.

In the 2017 Assembly polls, when it had not allied with these parties but was in partnership with the Congress, the SP had won 47 seats with 21.82% votes, while the Congress had got 7 seats. The BJP had swept the polls bagging 312 seats with 39.67% votes.

The SP suffered a major blow this time when the Jayant Chaudhary-led RLD, which has a base among Jats in western UP, crossed over to the BJP-led NDA in February.

The SBSP joined the NDA last year. Right after the 2022 Assembly polls, SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar had