A weak SP now open to a grand alliance

Though Mulayam has made it clear the CM would be chosen after polls, alliance partners have no issues with Akhilesh being the campaign face.

LUCKNOW: With a weakened Samajwadi Party (SP) opening up to the proposal of joining hands with smaller parties, a grand alliance of non-BJP parties may now become a reality in Uttar Pradesh.

Though SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has made it clear that the newly elected legislators will choose their chief minister after the elections next year, the alliance partners have no issue with the projection of Akhilesh Yadav as their chief ministerial face. As of now, both the Janata Dal (United) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal have decided to wait and watch.

RLD leader Jayant Chaudhury is hopeful that Mulayam will sort out the family dispute before the electoral battle begins.

Talking about a phone conversation between the SP chief and his father Chaudhury Ajit Singh on Monday, the RLD leader said “not much should be read into it”. “They mostly discussed their old relationship,” he said. Chaudhury Charan Singh’s two disciples — Mulayam and Ajit Singh — have no love lost between them. They fought a violent battle for the chief minister’s post in 1989. But it appears the ageing leaders are now willing to let bygones be bygones.

Mulayam’s call to Ajit amid the political hullabaloo could be an indication of his softening stand on fighting the 2017 battle alone. Speculations had been rife about Akhilesh floating a new front and allying with nonBJP parties.

Akhilesh’s uncle Shivpal had blamed Ramgopal for not only breaking the grand alliance before the Bihar elections, but also scuttling the initiative taken by him to forge an alliance with like-minded parties ahead of the 2017 polls.

JD(U) national general secretary KC Tyagi confirmed Shivpal’s allegations. “We had accepted their symbol, flag, policy programme and appointed Mulayam as chairman of the grand alliance. In simpler words, we were becoming a party under SP, yet they broke it,” he said.

Tyagi added that he wanted the crisis in the Yadav family to end before taking a call on rebuilding the grand alliance.

While the JD(U) and RLD have come together, talks are yet to begin with the Congress.