In UP's Amroha, BSP leader Danish Ali hopes to register victory in his 'janmabhoomi'

Asserting that the ‘road to South Block’ goes through Uttar Pradesh, BSP leader Danish Ali says there is a wave in favour of the BSP-SP-RLD grand alliance in the state and the ‘mahagathbandhan’ will play a key role after the Lok Sabha polls. The 'mahagathbandhan' will sweep the polls in Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, the grand alliance candidate from Amroha said. Ali, a long-time loyalist of Janata Dal (S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda, joined the Bahujan Samaj Party just ahead of the polls with the blessings of the former prime minister and his son, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.

In an interview to PTI, he said he switched over to the BSP as he wanted to work in his ‘janambhoomi’ (land of birth) and ‘karmabhoomi’ (land of work).

“I wanted to serve my people and that is why I took this decision. JD(S) does not have that much of presence here and that is why I took the decision with the consent of all my well-wishers including the JD(S) leadership,” he said.

“I took them into confidence that I want to be in Parliament and serve my own people,” said Ali. Asked if the ‘mahagathbandhan’ and the Congress fighting separately could divide the anti-BJP vote and put the people in a dilemma, he said there is no dilemma in his constituency as ‘everybody is voting for the ‘mahagathbandhan’.”

“There is a wave for the ‘mahagathbandhan’ in UP, no doubt about that. We are 100 per cent confident of sweeping the polls in UP,” Ali said.

He said there is no doubt the ‘mahagathbandhan’ will emerge as a strong bloc and play a role nationally post polls. “The road to the South Block goes from UP,” Ali said, adding that the mahagathbandhan will be a key player post polls. South Block in Delhi houses the government's main secretariat and is considered the main seat of power at the Centre. Asked if he could play an important role in bringing like-minded parties together after the elections, the BSP leader said he will do whatever his new party asks him to.

Ali, whose ancestral village is in Garmukteshwar, one of the assembly segments of Amroha, played a central role in stitching together of the Congress-JD(S) alliance in Karnataka and in the subsequent power sharing talks. Will he again play a role in getting the Congress on board after the polls in UP?

“These are all hypothetical questions. Whatever role my party assigns to me, I will do that," Ali responded.

Definitely everybody is on board to not allow the BJP to come to power, he said. Talking about moving to politics here, he said, “This place is where I was born. My education was here. I never shifted my base to south India, though I was managing political affairs there. My base was in my hometown or in Delhi.”

Shifting from politics in south India to the north is not an issue as he knows everybody across the political spectrum, Ali said. He slammed those dubbing him an ‘outsider’ in Amroha and alleged it was all a part of the BJP's propaganda. Ali is taking on BJP's sitting MP Kanwar Singh Tanwar and the Congress' Sachin Chaudhary in the elections in Amroha, which votes on Thursday in the second phase of the Lok Sabha polls.