The incongruity between the Mahagathbandhan parties in Uttar Pradesh came to the fore as the SP and BSP workers in the Mahagathbandhan rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur exchanged blows with each other. The brawl broke out ahead of the BSP supremo Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s joint rally in Ghazipur.

गाजीपुर में गठबंधन की रैली शुरू होने से पहले सपा-और बसपा कार्यकर्ताओं में हुई जमकर मारपीट।मारपीट का वीडियो हुआ वायरल

गाजीपुर में आज अखिलेश यादव और मायावती की चल रही है संयुक्त रैली

गठबंधन प्रत्याशी अफजाल अंसारी के समर्थन में दोनों नेता कर रहे हैं रैली pic.twitter.com/eYEDoH8Xv2 — Anil Tiwari (@Interceptors) May 13, 2019

As can be seen in the video, the workers of the two parties, SP and BSP, who were present at the venue engaged in skirmishes ahead of the Mahagathbandhan rally in Ghazipur.

Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati were to jointly address the election rally in support of Afzal Ansari of Quami Ekta Dal who is a Mahagathbandhan candidate against Cabinet minister Manoj Sinha. Akhilesh Yadav has finally buried the hatchet and decided to canvass for votes for Ansari, who was once denied permission to merge his party, Qaumi Ekta Dal, with the SP.

In 2016, during the infamous Chacha-Bhatija feud, Shivpal Yadav had announced the merger of Quami Ekta Dal with the SP. However, the SP parliamentary board denied the merger. This was one of the significant reasons for the widening rift between Akhilesh Yadav and Shivpal Yadav.

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The faultlines between SP and BSP also runs deep. In June 1995, when BSP had announced taking back its support from the Mulayam government, she was attacked by SP goons inside the Meerabai guesthouse in Lucknow. Reports say that the goons had beaten her up and had torn up her clothes when BJP MLA Bhahmadutt Dwivedi had to risked his life to fight with the goons and rescue Mayawati. Mayawati and Mulayam had been archenemies since then. But the emergence of Modi had even forced the bitter enemies with seemingly disparate political ideologies to shun their differences and join hands with each other.

The tussle between the SP and BSP activists reveals the internal bickering among the Mahagathbandhan parties who are not only facing a stiff challenge from the BJP but also from their own alliance partners. The motley group of Mahagathbandhan parties have little in common and the only thread that unites them is their collective fear of losing relevance in the face of another Modi rule at the centre.