Ajit, Mayawati seat deadlock threatens alliance

The ten party alliance stitched up at the initiative of UP CM Mayawati and the Left parties, has run into serious trouble due to “irreconcilable differences” between Ajit Singh and Mayawati.

The ten party alliance stitched up at the initiative of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati and the Left parties, has run into serious trouble within two weeks of its formation due to “irreconcilable differences” between Ajit Singh and Mayawati.

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The differences between Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party are mainly to do with seat sharing for the Lok Sabha in UP. The Left parties along with the BSP, RLD, TDP, JD(S), INLD and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha had come together a day after the UPA government won the Lok Sabha confidence last month, but are now finding it difficult to keep the two UP parties together. The Left and the TDP, in a bid to avoid the embarrassment of the alliance crumbling within days of its formation, are reportedly making a desperate effort to bring Mayawati and Ajit to the negotiating table.

The RLD, with a history of having changed allies in almost every poll, is unhappy with the BSP turnaround on the seat-sharing arrangement, “as was promised before the confidence vote when the two parties had come together”, an RLD leader said.

Ajit demanded 10 seats, but Mayawati was not ready to concede more than five in Western UP, leading to a deadlock.

“We stopped negotiations with the Congress-SP alliance and joined hands with Mayawati before the trust vote in Lok Sabha on the basis of a clear commitment from the BSP that it would give us a respectable share of seats for the next elections, but we feel the commitment has not being honoured,” RLD leaders said.