It's final: Akhilesh-Maya to go separate in UP by-polls

Ending all possibilities of an alliance, the Bahujan Samajwadi Party and the Samajwadi Party (SP) have decided to contest all the 12 Uttar Pradesh assembly seats on their own, where by-polls would be held in the next few months.

Both the parties, which had formed a 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) in UP to fight the BJP in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections but fared badly, have started the process of selection of their nominees for the by-polls.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav, in a departure from the old practice, has invited applications from the prospective nominees in the prescribed format.

"The interested candidates will have to furnish details of his or her political life along with personal information on the form... the forms can be submitted to the SP's office here by July 20," said a senior SP leader here on Thursday.

Akhilesh, who met senior party leaders here, asked them to prepare for the by-polls. "The by-poll results will be a pointer to the performance of the state government," he said.

BSP supremo Mayawati has also started the process of selecting the candidates. "The process has already begun... we are screening the possible nominees," said a BSP leader.

BSP sources said that Mayawati was trying to implement her old and tested 'social engineering' formula once again, which had helped her party catapult to power in 2007 state assembly polls.

Of the 12 seats going to by-polls, 11 were won by the BJP in the 2017 assembly elections while one seat each was won by the SP and the BSP. The by-polls were necessitated by the election of the MLAs to the Lok Sabha.