GHAZIABAD/MEERUT: Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party announced their seat-sharing formula for the Lok Sabha election on Thursday, which will see the Mayawati-led outfit contest in 38 seats and its alliance partner in 37.One of the seats where SP will field the alliance candidate is Ghaziabad BSP has already Satveer Nagar as its candidate from neighbouring Gautam Budh Nagar (Noida).The seat is currently held by former Army chief Gen VK Singh (retd), who contested as a BJP candidate in the 2014 Lok Sabha election and coasted to a thumping victory by bagging more than half the votes polled (his was, in fact, one of the biggest winning margins in the election). Before Gen Singh, the Ghaziabad seat was held by senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh.Political experts pointed out that even with their forces combined, the SP-BSP alliance is likely to have it tough in Ghaziabad where, despite its dismal overall showing in 2014, Congress — which fielded Raj Babbar — had come second, polling more votes than the SP and BSP candidates.“The combined vote share of BSP and SP in the 2014 Lok Sabha election was 20.86%, far less than BJP’s 56.6%, so the coming together of BSP and SP will not have much bearing in Ghaziabad,” said Sanjay Mishra, professor (political science) at MMH College in Ghaziabad.SP’s city president Rahul Choudhary is aware of the challenge but is upbeat about the alliance’s chances. “This time, the BSP-SP-RLD combine will ensure SP’s win because traditional voters of the two other parties will root for the SP candidate,” said Choudhary. “We are also hoping to dent Congress’ traditional vote bank, which would not want to contribute to a losing cause,” he added.SP’s Surinder Kumar Munni is believed to be the frontrunner for the LS candidacy from Ghaziabad. “The decision is yet to be taken but Munni’s name is doing the rounds,” said Choudhary. Munni had won the Ghaziabad assembly seat on the SP ticket in 2004, with RLD’s backing. That was SP’s first win in Ghaziabad.SP and BSP are contesting a dozen seats each in western UP, which has a sizeable Muslim population, leaving three seats for RLD. BSP will field its candidates from Saharanpur, Meerut, Bijnor, Nagina, Amroha, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Aonla and Shahjahanpur.SP will contest from Kairana, Moradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, Hathras, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Badaun, Barielly, Pilibhit. SP had won Kannauj, Mainpuri, Badaun and Firozabad in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and retained Mainpuri in a by-election. The Kairana seat in Shamli district is an interesting addition in its kitty.In the 2016 bypoll, the grand alliance had fielded Tabassum Hasan on an RLD ticket against the daughter of sitting MP Hukum Singh, whose death had necessitated the bypoll. The experiment to field a joint candidate against BJP reaped benefits as the saffron stronghold into the hands of the opposition. In a way, the Kairana victory became a stepping stone for the SP-BSP-RLD alliance.RLD will contest Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar and Mathura for the alliance.

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