Lucknow:
Angered by Congress not giving even a single seat in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav indicated on Thursday that the same treatment can be given to Congress in Uttar Pradesh.
The SP President said in a sharp tone that the Congress leadership should not allow its ‘small leaders’ to comment about their party. Due to his comment, cracks have started appearing in the opposition alliance ‘India’.
The SP chief said that if he had known that the ‘India’ alliance was only for the national level, his party leaders would not have picked up Congress’s call to attend the Madhya Pradesh meeting. “I was confused,” he said sarcastically in Sitapur. Yadav said that if this alliance is only for parliamentary elections, then his party accepts it, but he indicated that when the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are held, If there is discussion on seat distribution in Uttar Pradesh then it will be difficult for Congress.
Akhilesh Yadav said, “If the alliance in Uttar Pradesh is only for the Centre, then it will be discussed at that time and the way Samajwadi Party was treated, they will also see the same treatment here.” Upcoming Madhya Pradesh Regarding the elections, he said, “If I had known on the first day that there would be no alliance at the assembly level, our party leaders would not have gone to the meetings. We would not have given him the list (of which and how many seats the SP wants to contest in Madhya Pradesh), nor would we have picked up his call.
Samajwadi Party on Wednesday announced the names of its 22 more candidates for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections. The party has so far announced its candidates for a total of 31 seats. When asked why SP did this, Yadav said, “If there is no alliance at the state level, we accept it and declare our party’s candidates.” What have we done wrong in this?
The SP chief said that during the meeting with Congress leaders that lasted till 1 am, the SP leaders handed over to him the details related to the party’s performance in the last elections in Madhya Pradesh. He claimed that Congress leaders had said that they were considering giving six seats to SP as per the seat sharing agreement in that state but they did not give even a single seat. In the 2018 assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, SP Won one seat and stood second on five seats. It had formed an alliance with the Adivasi Gondwana Gantantra Party and secured 1.30 percent votes.