Bihar election result has given a ray of hope to the non-BJP political parties to clobber a similar ‘Mahagathbandhan’ with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav not ruling out the possibility of such an alliance in 2017 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
“Such an alliance is a possibility in UP. If all like-minded parties join hands we can have a similar alliance in this State,” Yadav told reporters in Sant Kabir Nagar on Sunday where he had gone to attend a marriage function.
He said that still there are around 15 months left before UP goes to polls and it is too early to say anything about the Grand Alliance (GA). “But yes, we should join hands to defeat the communal forces”, Yadav, who is also State president of the party, said.
The statement came a day after BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak had said that verdict like Bihar was possible in UP only if two arch rivals BSP and SP join hands. When the same question was thrown at Chief Minister he did not reply but said that the time will tell (what will happen).
He said people of Bihar have voted for development. People have given the similiar verdict to the Samajwadi Party in Panchayat election. They (people) negated others and voted for SP-supported candidates because our Government talks about development.
“We will go to people in 2017 elections with report card which is full of achievements. We will talk about development work we have carried out and people will definitely like this,” he said.
Earlier, SP general secretary and UP Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav too had given a positive response on the proposed grand alliance in UP. “We are open to all strategy to counter communal forces,” he said.
Yadav’s statement finds favourable response from other parties as lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) sending feelers to the ruling Samajwadi Party for a grand alliance in the 2017 Assembly polls.
UP RJD president Ashok Singh said that such a partnership between SP and RJD will fructify soon. “laluji will come to UP and talk to the SP leaders along with other secular political outfit for making a grand alliance to defeat the communal BJP,” he told The Pioneer here on Sunday.