Srinagar, Jan. 16 -- Ideological compatibility is considered vital for a national party and a regional one to be able to forge an electoral alliance. But this proposition is being turned on its head. Ideological similarity now seems to matter far less for regional parties than the desire to pressure the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress and check the expansion of the two main national parties.
This is the theme of the alliance between the BahujanSamaj Party and the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh that was formalised on January 12. The two parties and the Congress have been insisting that their primary goal is to vanquish the BJP, and prevent it from corroding democracy and secularism any further.
Yet, the BahujanSamaj Party and the...