LUCKNOW: When talks of alliance among opposition parties, especially, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party are peaking in Uttar Pradesh, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav failed to cut much ice with it allies in other poll-bound states including Madhya Pradesh.
As a result, the party has decided to contest all the Assembly seats in the state which will be going to polls by this year end.
As per the highly placed party sources, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is likely to visit Madhya Pradesh on Thursday and Friday to take stock of party's preparation in the state.
"Not only MP, party will be contesting Assembly elections in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh also as our leadership is expanding party base in other states. While the names of the party candidates are being finalised in MP, party's poll strategy is being given the final shape in rest of the two poll-bound north Indian states," said a senior SP leader.
It is pertinent to mention here that alliance talks are allegedly on between the Congress and BSP in Madhya Pradesh but both parties have kept SP out of the affair cautiously. However, in UP, SP alligned with the BSP to hand out four back to back bypoll defeats to ruling BJP but in MP, the BSP preferred to align only with the Congress which is the main opposition in the state.
Sources close to Akhilesh Yadav say that he is aiming to expand the party beyond Uttar Pradesh. Though SP registered victories in MP bypolls held in 1993,1998,2003 and 2008; the party failed to even open its account during assembly elections in 2013.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav recently met a delegation of leaders from Madhya Pradesh in Lucknow and discussed the party strategy for the upcoming polls.
Reacting to SP strategy to go it alone on all the seats in MP, BJP wondered the fate of grand alliance aagainst it in the state which being ruled by the saffron party for the last decade and a half.
"The SP leadership should ponder over the fact why it was kept away from the alliance talks by the Congress and the BSP. BJP has nothing to worry about as the Samajwadis have hardly any presence in Madhya Pradesh," said a senior BJP leader.