LUCKNOW: Having emerged stronger and confident from back-to-back four bypoll wins in UP, the Samajwadi Party (SP) is all set test waters in three other states of Hindi hinterland including Madhya
Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh where assembly elections are due in the year end.
Giving a clear signal, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav confirmed that he was open to alliance with like-minded parties in the upcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh to ensure BJP’s defeat. “We are open to a tie-up in Madhya Pradesh. If we can cobble up an alliance, it will be good and the foundation of a
bigger alliance ahead of 2019 will get stronger. Else, we will go it alone,” he claimed here on Wednesday.
However, as per the highly placed SP sources, if the Samajwadis failed to find suitable alliance terms, the party would contest all 230 seats in MP and all 90 in Chhattisgarh. In the wake of a palpable anti-incumbency against Shivraj Singh Chauhan government in MP, the opposition can see the possibility of a victory and hence Congress has already started sending out feelers to parties like BSP for a tie-up
to put up a strong fight against the BJP in the state.
If all goes well and a pre-poll alliance on Kairana model takes shape, SP will also join the opposition bandwagon along with other smaller regional outfits. However, hectic activity to consolidate the grand alliance for 2019 is on at ground zero UP as well. In a related development, RLD vice-president Jayant Chaudhary called on SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in the state capital on Wednesday.
As per the SP sources, the two leaders talked about the ways to firm up the alliance which was stitched up for Kairana and Noorpur.
However, taking a jibe at PM Modi’s ‘one nation, one election’ idea, Akhilesh sought to mock at it by claiming that he was all set to support the phenomenon provided BJP agreed to club UP Assembly
election with 2019 Lok Sabha polls. “Believe me, in that case, the BJP will face the same defeat which they have tasted in UP bypolls,” he asserted. The SP chief claimed that the BJP was losing its support base because of its unfulfilled promises and indifferent approach to governance. “The farmers in western UP are annoyed with the BJP. They have been left in the lurch and the ruling party seems to be least concerned,” he averred.
Meanwhile, reacting to Patanjali’s announcement of pulling out its mega food park project along the Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party chief claimed that he had allocated land for the project not to benefit Patanjali but for the sake of farmers in West UP. “The food industries would have directly purchased from the farmer," he claimed.
Slamming the BJP government on GST and demonetisation, the SP president said that the upcoming election will be issue-oriented instead of personalities. He said that if the BJP had a winning formula, so do the Samajwadi Party and its alliance partners have which was well reflected in the bypolls.