‘If required, will make sacrifices for alliance’

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said that if strengthening the alliance (with the Bahujan Samaj Party) required sacrifices, then he will make them.

While Akhilesh did not elaborate, some of those who attended the meeting at which he made the comment said Akhilesh was referring to seat-sharing with the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Yadav made the remark when he was addressing SP leaders and workers at the party’s state headquarters.

Last month, after the SP failed to get the BSP’s Rajya Sabha candidate elected, Akhilesh had said: “When the appropriate time, comes then I will show large-heartedness.”

Hitting out at the BJP on Tuesday, Akhilesh said it had a hidden agenda of fanning dissatisfaction and differences in the society to cash in on it.

Accusing Bharatiya Janata Party leaders of breaching decency of language, he said the party was planning to influence

Bharatiya Janata Party had a hidden agenda of fanning dissatisfaction and differences in the society to cash in on it.

AKHILESH YADAV, SP chief

the 2019 polls through disinformation.

He also said, “BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) has been calling the SP-BSP cooperation a conspiracy.”

The former chief minister said Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party were against social justice while the SP believed that people should get rights and opportunities according to their share in the population.

Akhilesh asked party workers to be cautious of the Bharatiya Janata Party ’s “dangerous politics of polarisation.” “Politics should not have the unholy mix of caste and religion,” he said.

He said the SP stood for development, social harmony and strengthening of democracy.