PSPL to SBSP: Uttar Pradesh's small parties get roasted in 2019 elections

While the big players continue to dominate the state's political scene, smaller parties are relegated to the background

After a feud within the Samajwadi Party (SP), Shivpal Singh Yadav, the estranged uncle of party President Akhilesh Yadav, had formed the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL) in October 2018, vowing to emerge as a strong socialist force against the SP in Uttar Pradesh.

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha election, the PSPL had brought nearly 50 smaller outfits to its platform and pompously announced  contesting all parliamentary constituencies in UP but one (the seat on which SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is a nominee).

The PSPL was one among a gamut of similar political formations vying for electoral gains at the hustings in UP, which is witnessing a triangular contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress, and the mahagathbandhan of the SP, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). But that did not fructify and instead, tall poll aspirations of smaller political outfits dwindled thick and fast.

For example, the Nishad Party, whose nominee Praveen Nishad (as an SP candidate), with the support of opposition parties, had defeated the BJP candidate in the Gorakhpur parliamentary by-poll last year, joined hands with the saffron party weeks before the first phase of voting took place on April 11 after realising the new political matrix. Praveen is contesting from the Sant Kabir Nagar seat from the BJP.

With less than a week for the last phase of voting on May 19, the big players continue to dominate the state’s political template and the smaller league is relegated to the background.

These smaller parties are no match for mega roadshows and extravagant public rallies of top politicians, including PM Narendra Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi, who not only capture the media space, but also political discourse.

The league of smaller parties includes the PSPL, the Jansatta Dal, floated by Independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) of Om Prakash Rajbhar and the Apna Dal of Krishna Patel. 

The UP political landscape had changed in January 2019 when the SP and the BSP forged the mahagathbandhan, while the Congress elevated Priyanka as general secretary in charge of Eastern UP with the mandate to revive the party.

Since this effectively meant that UP would witness a triangular contest, smaller sub-caste-based political fronts like the PSPL (Yadavs), the SBSP (Rajbhars), the Jansatta Dal (Kshatriyas), the Apna Dal (Patels) realised the complex equation and the hard political bargaining lying ahead of them.

Soon, Shivpal was publicly seeking an alliance with the SP or the Congress, while the BJP’s allies Apna Dal (S) and the SBSP were demanding their pound of flesh in seat distribution. But Shivpal’s overtures were neither entertained by the SP nor the Congress, and the Apna Dal (Sonelal) and the SBSP did not gain much from the BJP.

The SBSP, which was demanding five seats, was not offered a single seat by the BJP; it instead offered Rajbhar to contest from Ghosi on the BJP ticket. The SBSP parted ways and announced contesting 39 seats in UP.

The BJP also did not concede to the demands of the Apna Dal (S), which was seeking three seats. As part of the pact, the latter had to be content with only two seats, including Mirzapur, which is being contested by its leader and Union minister Anupriya Patel.

Political analyst Surendra Dubey obser-ved since it was a parliamentary election, smaller parties had little to offer to the electorate in terms of agenda and that they could only exercise some influence in alliance with a bigger political formation and not in isolation. 

“In UP, 60 of the 80 seats are witnessing a direct contest either between the BJP and the Congress or the BJP and the mahagathbandhan. On the remaining 20, the contest is triangular,” he said.

The SBSP has announced support to the SP-BSP combine in  several seats, including the Sant Kabir Nagar, the Bansgaon and the Maharajganj constituencies, reflecting desperation to stay relevant in the UP political theatre. Raja Bhaiyaa’s Jansatta Dal is seen having some impact only in his pocket borough of Pratapgarh, where his cousin Akshay Pratap Singh is in the fray.