The Congress on Tuesday announced a tie-up with the Samajwadi Party for the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. While Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said the arrangement would be finalised in the next 48 hours, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad declared that the Grand Old Party would contest the UP Assembly elections as part of a “grand secular alliance” along with the ruling SP.
The Ajit Singh-led RlD, a breakaway faction of Apna Dal, the RJD and the JD(U) could also be part of the Bihar-type Mahagathbandhan.
Akhilesh’s insistence on forging a rainbow alliance to take on a resurgent BJP in the State was one of the prime reasons for his differences with his father Mulayam Singh Yadav and uncle Shivpal Yadav. Now that the Election Commission has settled the dispute in the SP in favour of Akhilesh, he is unlikely to waste any more time in giving shape to the alliance.
Talking to reporters in lucknow, Akhilesh affirmed his authority saying, “The Samajwadi Party will go for a pre-poll alliance and an announcement would be made within the next two days.” He added that the alliance would be announced in two days’ time and ruled out visiting Delhi for holding talks with the Congress and other parties.
This was the first time that Akhilesh made the announcement about an alliance before the media. For the last nearly four months, Akhilesh has consistently maintained that if the SP enters into an alliance with the Congress then the coalition will win at least 300 seats in UP Assembly.
Akhilesh, who met Mulayam on Tuesday morning, also denied that he had any differences with Netaji over the proposed alliance with the Congress and other small parties.
“Netaji is my father and that fact cannot change. We had a fight over the party and this fight was necessary. It was not a happy situation for me. He is my father. 90 per cent of the list of candidates of both the factions was common,” he said.
In Delhi, after weeks of allusions by Congress leaders on the possibility of such an alliance, Azad said the related alliance modalities would be announced on Thursday. When asked whether it would be a grand secular alliance also comprising Ajit Singh’s RlD, Azad said this was just the beginning of the alliance process and the nitty-gritty would be decided in the next one or two days.
AICC sources said the Congress may be offered 90 to 100 seats by the SP, which is also trying to rope in the RlD and the JD(U).
SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, a close aide of Akhilesh, and Azad are resolving disputes over certain seats.
UP has 403 Assembly constituencies where Akhilesh’s party would be contesting the majority of seats and was likely to have RlD as a junior partner in Western UP, which was once a stronghold of Ajit Singh.
Poll strategist Prashant Kishor played a significant role in bringing the SP and the Congress together,
“I am confident that the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance will form the next Government in Uttar Pradesh,” said Azad, AICC general secretary in-charge of UP polls.
Significantly, former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who has been projected by the Congress as the UP CM candidate had already given indications that if the alliance takes place, she would step aside in favour of Akhilesh.
Talks about such an alliance had intensified since last week when Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had significantly remarked at the ‘Jan Vedna Sammelan’ that the elections in the key State would be an “exciting affair”.
The refrain in several Opposition parties, including the Congress and the SP, was that the BJP should be stopped in UP as the electoral outcome would have a major bearing on the next lok Sabha polls.