Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said his party did not fear any grand alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the BSP as the people are bound to reject such opportunistic pacts for winning elections.

Keen to show that his party is set to recover from the stunning defeat delivered by voters in the Lok Sabha by-polls from Gorakhapur and Phulpur, Yogi said, "What happened in the bypolls was a deal between the two parties, announced close to actual date of voting. It was not a true alliance. But they will not be able to stitch up an alliance for the next election (LS polls) because the reality is different. People will reject such deals."

Yogi, who was taking part in a media event, was asked whether the BJP would be able to win bulk of the seats in 2019 as it did in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. His responded saying, "We (BJP) will take all 80 seats in the state in 2019." The BJP and its allies had won 73 of the 80 seats in UP in 2014.

Lessons for BJP

Yogi said the bypoll losses had taught important lessons to the BJP. "We were overconfident and took the results for granted and ended up with losses. We have now analysed the loss in Gorakhpur and Phulpur and prepared our plan to fight such alliances. We can’t reveal our roadmap now."
Yogi also added that local issues dominated the bypolls. "Our workers and voters thought Gorakhpur and Phulpur were the seats of the CM and Deputy CM. So some of them took the outcome for granted. Some didn’t even step out to vote and some didn’t go for door to door campaign."

Yogi held that the people of his state had seen "how the SP, BSP and Congress have governed UP and now none of them have the strength to fight the BJP alone."

The UP CM said, "Our leader and face was Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the last assembly polls. Today, the SP and BSP have created an alliance. They should decide who their leader is. Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav or Mayawati?"