The Samajwadi Party (SP) has emerged as the principal challenger to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh. As the countdown to the next state elections begins, it has its work cut out. In the Assembly polls in 2017, it tied up with the Congress Party; in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, it aligned itself with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Both experiments