On the alliance between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh, I think, the most important question is-what exactly does the alliance want?

Fundamentally, SP and BSP’s interests are misaligned in this coalition. What they are really looking for, is not secularism as some teenagers believe, but a slice of the pie. The larger the pie for each, the more critical that party will be to forming the next government. So, regardless of how the rest of the country shapes up, each party would prefer that they do very well and the other party does poorly, so that they are critical to the government formation and the other party is not.

So, in this “alliance”, each party wants to benefit from the others’ vote bank while hoping that their vote bank does not transfer votes in constituencies where they are not contesting.

Or maybe I am overthinking. They may have come together not for vote bank politics but for upholding democracy and secularism.