BHABUA, Nov. 22 -- Of many outcomes of the recent assembly elections, one is the uncharacteristic closeness between the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) that, if materialises further, could turn into a poll alliance between the two parties in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2027. AIMIM supported BSP on many seats and that has generated a bonhomie, say local leaders. The BSP, a party centred around backward and Dalit castes, especially Jatavs, has been on descent in recent years and trying to regain its lost ground. It won one seat in the Bihar polls, while its candidates were also polled significant number of votes on a few other seats. Its performance is better than Parashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party that was estimated too high by political pundits and had more sound resources. Similarly, the AIMIM, which had won five seats in 2020 polls but four of its MLAs had defected to RJD, maintained its grip on the Muslim-rich Seemanchal region by winning five seats and performing exceedingly well on some other seats. It emerged as a force. Both the parties were in alliance for the Bihar assembly polls in 2020 and their chenistry had also worked on some seats. Since BSP has a wide-spread yet scattered vote-bank and AIMIM too depends on pockets of influence, both parties must be mulling to join hands and expand their footprints and turn cooperation into legislative seats. Since AIMIM also has also been promoting and working for Dalit causes, the alliance would not be difficult to forge between the two parties. In fact, many workers of AIMIM in Telangana come from Dalit communities. The hint of BSP-AIMIM tango was witnessed during the presence of the BSP Bihar in-charge Anil Kumar at a meeting of Satish Kumar Singh alias Pintu Yadav, the BSP candidate who recently won from Ramgarh, at a party event where posters of AIMIM with pictures its leader Asaduddin Owaisi adorning the background with similar posters of BSP chief Mayawati. "It is absolutely impossible to put up an AIMIM poster on a BSP stage without the permission of party supremo Mayawati," BSP insiders said, as BSP follows a strict direction of not putting up pictures except those of party's leaders or icons. Locals say that AIMIM had lent support to BSP's Ramgarh candidate Santosh Yadav who won by only 30 votes. The BSP had announced to contest all 243 seats but it contested only 181 seats in Bihar. Party's entire focus was on Kaimur, Rohtas and Buxar districts of Shahabad, bordering UP. The party registered its strong presence on 7 seats in the region. In Buxar, BSP candidate Abhimanyu Maurya paved way for defeat of Congress's sitting MLA Sanjay Kumar Tiwary. Here, BJP candidate and former IPS Anand Mishra won by 28,353 votes. The BSP candidate had secured 29,118 votes. In Kargahar, BSP candidate Uday Pratap Singh secured second place with over 56,000 votes. The Congress, a Grand Alliance (GA) ally, secured third and lost its sitting seat. The GA also lost the Mohania (SC), Bhabua, Chainpur, and Rajpur assembly seats due to the strong performance of the BSP. The AIMIM support played a pivotal role in increasing BSP's vote percentage up to 1.62% which was 1.02% in 2020, political analyst professor Vanshidhar said. However, when asked about their possible alliance, BSP national coordinator and Rajya Sabha MP Ramji Gautam and AIMIM state president Akhtarul Iman denied that there has been any recent talks on such a prospect. Iman said that party chief Asaduddin Owaisi would take a call on it. Political analysts like Dr Haridwar Pandey of Varanasi feel that all Opposition parties vie for Muslim votes in UP and since BSP's Muslim base has eroded in recent years, it might find it wise to align with the AIMIM for Muslim supports and similarly the AIMIM might get Dalit votes of BSP to find a winning formula. The coming months will spell out how equation from Bihar will unfold in other states....