A day after declaring his opposition to the alliance of Samajwadi Party with the Congress, former Samajwadi Party president and Yadav family patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday directed party workers to file papers against Congress candidates in 105 Assembly segments.
As per the seat sharing agreement between the two parties, the SP will contest 298 seats and rest of the 105 have been given to the Congress.
Sources close to the SP patriarch said that Mulayam Singh is likely to campaign for candidates who file papers against Congress candidates in the 105 seats. They said that Mulayam has also told supporters that he was willing to go to any extent to oppose the alliance even if he is expelled from the party. The SP patriarch had skipped a party function where the manifesto for the Assembly elections was released hy Akhilesh Yadav.
Mulayam Singh is said to be particularly unhappy with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who had praised BSP chief Mayawati during the joint press conference on Sunday. Mulayam feels hat that the Congress has kept its escape route open and it could join hands with Mayawati after elections if there is a ‘hung’ Assembly.
Terming the SP- Congress alliance as `absolutely unnecessary’ on Sunday, Mulayam Singh had said that he would not campaign for the alliance as he was opposed to it. This came on the same day when SP president and CM Akhilesh Yadav and Congress top gun Rahul Gandhi addressed a joint press conference in lucknow.
He also said that the Congress had ruled the country for a very long time and his party had always fought against the grand old party. Yadav Senior said that the SP was capable of contesting elections on its own as it had done so many times in the past and won with a majority.
After a bitter intra-family power struggle, Mulayam Singh Yadav was stripped off the post of national president of the party and Akhilesh Yadav repolaced him. later, the father and the son knocked at the doors of Election Commission which ruled in favour of Akhilesh by recognising him as national president and also handed him the party’s election symbol of ‘cycle’.