Just three days after Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati delivered a big blow to the Congress by refusing alliance for assembly elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Saturday followed suit as party chief Akhilesh Yadav too ruled out any alliance with the Congress for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls.
The reason as cited by Akhilesh Yadav is that the SP waited long to come to an understanding but the Congress showed no willingness to join hands with like-minded parties to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
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“We have waited till now but not any longer” said Yadav at a gathering at the party headquarters in Lucknow.
Yadav added that his party will either contest the polls on its own or form an alliance with the Gondwana Party.
“The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has already declined any tie up with the grand old party and I am sure other parties in other poll-bound states will also soon announce their candidates,” he stated.
In an indirect reference to the statement of senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh that the BSP was not aligning with the Congress against the BJP in Madhya Pradesh for fear of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI, Yadav said parties like the SP and BSP were not scared of anything.
He said the SP was ready to explore the possibility of a coalition with the BSP in Madhya Pradesh.
He slammed the Uttar Pradesh government and said that people had lost faith in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and that law and order had completely collapsed the state.
(With agency inputs)