Claiming that his friendship with Congress has not ended, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said that the time has come to bury the past and look for new `friends’ as the recent bye-election results have given a new dimension to political friendship.
“What had happened has happened,” Akhilesh said in reference to bitter relations SP had with Bahujan Samaj Party in the past. “The time has come to look for new relationship and Samajwadi Party is ready for that because SP had always given respect to all the political parties and in turn has got respect from them,” Yadav told reporters in an impromptu press conference here on Thursday.
In the same vein he hastened to add that his party still enjoys good relations with Congress. “Congress se sambandh hamare acche hain aur acche bane rahenge(We have good relation with Congress and it will continue),” Yadav said.
There are question mark on the fate of SP’s friendship with the Congress after the party fielded candidates against them even as other opposition parties supported their candidates. Both the Congress candidates lost their deposits in the by-polls.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said in Delhi that Congress had approached Akhilesh with unity proposal but the suggestion was rejected.
The friendship between SP and Congress, who had contested the 2017 Assembly polls in alliance, was on the verge of breaking after SP came closer to BSP in this bypoll and Congress distanced itself from this front in the by-polls by contesting it.
“You make new relations in politics it does not mean you forget old friends,” Akhilesh said emphasizing on the political relation between SP and Congress.
However, the SP President questioned the impartiality of the Electronic Voting Machines. If the EVMs were not tampered and time was not wasted, then the SP candidates would have won the by-polls with bigger margin,” he said.
He said some of the EVMs were found to have votes polled even before polling started. “Has these election been held on ballot papers the victory margin of the SP candidates must have been more,” he said.
The SP president claimed that this win in UP is the victory of the poor, labourer, farmers, Dalits, minorities. “It is a historic win and will change the political scenario of the country,” he said adding: “We believe the language of the BJP leaders will change and they will work for the people.”
Both the winning candidate of the SP — Praveen Nishad from Gorakhpur and Nagendra Singh Patel from Phulpur met the party president at the state party office and sought his blessings. Both the new MPs are slated to go to Delhi this evening and expected to take the oath of the lok Sabha member on Friday.