Bhim Army chief Chandrasekhar Azad, on Saturday said that his political outfit, the Azad Samaj Party, would not ally with the Samajwadi Party for Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
“Akhilesh (Yadav) doesn't want Dalit support. He wants only our votes and leaders from the community to emerge and assert their identity,” Chandrashekhar Azad said here on Saturday.
It is learnt that Akhilesh Yadav offered the Azad Samaj Party three seats but Chandrasekhar Azad was asking for 10 seats and a compromise could not be reached.
Later in the day, Akhilesh Yadav hit back, saying he had offered seats to Chandrasekhar Azad but the offer was turned down.
"Azad came to me yesterday (and) said he will contest. I gave Ghaziabad and Rampur Maniharan seats after talking to Rashtriya Lok Dal. Then he came, after talking to someone on the phone, and said he cannot fight... Whose phone was that? Who conspired?" he said.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav "does not want the support of Dalits. Yesterday Akhileshji humiliated us... yesterday Akhileshji humiliated the bahujan samaj," Chandrasekhar Azad said, a day after meeting the Samajwadi Party chief to discuss seat-sharing.
"In the end, I felt Akhileshji doesn't want Dalit leaders in his alliance... he only wants Dalit votes. My fear is that if Dalits vote for him and he forms the government, we won't be able to talk to him about our problems... if we are beaten, if our lands are stolen and our women raped, like Hathras,” the Bhim Army chief said.
Azad and Akhilesh Yadav were understood to have a broad agreement in place to contest these polls together, with the Bhim Army chief likely to stand from his stronghold in Saharanpur.
"Akhileshji told us a month ago that we will fight the election together. I was here for two days to discuss our joint fight. I wanted to join Akhileshji to stop the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), but he doesn't want to give representation to the Dalits," Azad said and added, "I will decide on my next step in two days... there might be a third front ready soon,"
"I will appeal to other opposition parties to also support me against Yogi (Adityanath)... he has troubled the public for four and a half years," Chandrashekhar Azad said, adding that he wanted an alliance with Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party because "we don't want bahujan votes to be divided".