‘Santh-gath is Rajneeti’ is the older concept that is being followed in the Indian Politics. Whenever the political party doubts on its capacity to win the elections with majority, coalition is the best idea. Allies join hands together to come into the power and contest against other parties. In the 17th Lok Sabha elections also, Mahagathbandhan was formed between the two major allies who till few days back were involved in blaming each other on various key points. Mahagathbandhan was between SP and BSP.
Personal benefits are realised after Mahagathbandhan
Coalition of SP and BSP may not have been able to achieve anything big in this election but overall it has done well to both the parties individually. On one hand, BSP which was not able to win over a single seat in the Lok sabha elections 2014 had won 10 seats. Thus, it could be said that for BSP’s supreme Mayawati, the gathbandhan had benfitted her personally. This has enabled her party to retain its party symbol and status.
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On the other hand, SP had won 5 seats in this election. Akhilesh Yadav, former CM of UP has contested from Azamgarh and has been able to make a victory with the margin of around 250,000 votes. SP’s Azam Khan also won from 100,000 votes. This has benefitted atleast Akhilesh Yadav to have a stronghold at the constituency from where he has contested.
Gathbandhan is cheating or not
Well, it has always been in a topic of debate whether gathbandhan is cheating with the people of democratic India or not. For the political parties, gathbandhan is a way to increase their vote share and declare majority in the houses to form government. The purpose of gathbandhan should be to cater the people of the country so that their basic problems can be eliminated and the country can be a better place for them to live. However, after seeing the result of gathbandhan of SP and BSP in 2019, it can be said that it fulfils personal benefits more for the parties.