LUCKNOW:Even as the second-rung leaders in the Congress and the Samajwadi Party displayed considerable political bonhomie, the top brass on both sides have not yet decided on forging a political alliance.
And the rumours of an imminent Congress-SP alliance have also been the result of the campaign carried out by a section of the media, which even stated that the Congress had indeed managed to successfully woo SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to join the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre.
Further fuelling the speculation was the statement attributed to AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh, who said that the Congress did not have a problem with the SP joining the government at the Centre. And Digvijay’s remarks were echoed by UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi. According to her, Mulayam Singh had always been kind to the Congress and had bailed out the party from political crises.
Meanwhile, new UP Chief Minister and SP scion Akhilesh Singh Yadav said that the final decision on SP’s ties with the UPA would hinge on “Netaji”(Mulayam Singh).
Although there is no denying the fact that the intense political rivalry that existed between the Congress and the SP in the pre-poll phase has ceased to remain in the wake of the SP forming the new government in the state, the two parties could hardly afford to give political space to each other.
A senior SP leader rubbished the reports which suggested that the party’s Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav was likely to be made the Deputy Chairman of the Upper House.
”There is no question of him taking up this post nor the party becoming part of the UPA government,” he said describing the reports as a creation of the media. Moreover, the SP leader said the party was in fact preparing for the 2014 Lok Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh on its own and there was no talk of establishing ties with the Congress.