LUCKNOW: Though he gave a conspicuous miss to Monday meeting of united opposition in Delhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav expressed confidence that like-minded parties would come at one platform against the BJP before 2019 but remained non-committal over the name of the leader.
Notably, around 20 opposition parties, including regional satraps like TDP chief Chandra Babu Naidu and Trinamul Congress president Mamta Banerjee, had huddled up in Delhi on Monday to explore the
possibilities of a grand alliance against the ruling BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Significantly, both Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati kept away from the Monday meeting.
In an interview to a news channel on Monday, though the SP chief did not rule out the possibility of Congress’s participation in prospective SP-BSP-RLD alliance for 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, he stopped short of giving any firm reply to the query.
“The Congress may or may not join the alliance in UP. The talks over the gathbandhan have yet to start and nothing has been decided as of now since we all were busy with state assembly polls in MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh,” said the SP chief.
On the issue of leadership, Akhilesh asked the BJP to name their PM candidate as the country wanted a change. He, however, parried the query over the opposition alliance leader and PM candidate by saying that the issue of leadership would be decided after the 2019 elections.
Asked if SP patriarch and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav was in the PM race, the SP chief dodging the question, saying: “The country wants a new prime minister. If the BJP has no new PM face, the
Opposition will come up with one after the polls.”
He evaded the issue of seat sharing formula struck with the BSP in UP and claimed that at the national level, the efforts to cobble up any alliance will gain momentum only after the elections were over. “The alliance and a good one would be there to uproot the BJP government,” he said.