Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav today practically put the Congress on notice by accusing them of fooling other parties and hinting that if they had known that the alliance is not working at the state level, they would not have been so open to the INDIA block. “I will think about an alliance for the Lok Sabha polls,” said the leader, whose party has so far backed the idea of the united opposition.
The Congress and the Samajwadi Party – allies at the national level – eventually fielded candidates against each other on 18 seats in Madhya Pradesh. This development is expected to divide anti-BJP votes and play into the hands of the state’s ruling party in the upcoming assembly elections.
“We spoke to former Madhya Pradesh chief minister (Kamal Nath, who now heads the party’s state unit),” Yadav told reporters. They discussed the party’s performance. “We told them where our MLAs have won before… told them where we were at number 2 before,” Mr Yadav said.
The discussion, he added, lasted until 1am.
‘They assured us that they will consider us for six seats. When they announced candidates, there was nothing for the SP. If I knew there was no state alliance, we would not have met. We wouldn’t have talked to Congress. ,” he added.
The Congress had released the first list of 144 candidates on the first day of Navratri. Eight hours later, the Samajwadi Party announced the names of its nine candidates, with an overlap of five seats. Last night, the SP announced another 22 candidates, 13 of whom faced Congress from different seats.
The matter worsened after party leader Ajai Rai made some sharp comments. The SP, he had said, does not have any support on the ground in Madhya Pradesh and will not be allowed to contest the elections there. The Congress is also preparing to contest all 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, he added.
Mr Yadav, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, had become enraged. “I want to tell Congress that their chirkut neta (small leaders) should not talk about the SP… These Congress people are with the BJP… If I had known that there is no alliance at the state level, I would not have sent the SP leaders to Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh ,” added Mr Yadav.
Kamal Nath said yesterday that talks were still going on with the SP over the alliance at the state level. There were also “practical problems”, he said. “Our candidates are not ready to fight on the basis of the SP poll symbol, even though the SP says it is willing to put our candidates on the symbol. What should we do in such a situation? These are practical aspects on the ground,” he said.
On the other hand, the party was on the same page as Akhilesh Yadav on the need to defeat the BJP in the hustings, he said.
“We want the SP to help us defeat the BJP. I thank Akhilesh Yadav as he aims to defeat the BJP. He told me this personally,” he said.