Abu Azmi asks Akhilesh to stay away from Cong

SP leader also asks former CM not to campaign for Cong in Karnataka polls

LUCKNOW: President of Maharashtra unit of the Samajwadi Party (SP) Abu Asim Azmi has cautioned party president Akhilesh Yadav against having any truck with the Congress and asked him not to campaign for it in the Karnataka assembly election.

“Congress is a betrayer. SP had a tie-up with the Congress in 2017 UP assembly elections but it joined hands with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra polls. Had Congress allied with the NCP and the SP in Gujarat, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would not have returned to power there,” Azmi said in a letter to Akhilesh on April 25.

“Did the Congress offer any seat to the SP to contest? Then why should you go and campaign for them. If you have any pact with the Congress for 2019 Lok Sabha polls then the party should seek to contest seats under the pact,” he said.

Hailing from Azamgarh, Azmi is a member of the Maharashtra legislative assembly.

In the letter, the soft copy of which is circulating among SP leaders and workers, Azmi said:

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Congress is a betrayer. SP had a tieup with the Congress in 2017 UP assembly elections but it joined hands with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra polls.

ABU ASIM AZMI , president of Maharashtra unit of SP

“In 2017 UP assembly election, you gave 105 seats to the Congress to contest when they had only 21 MLAs in the state.”

SP leaders familiar with the development said though the Congress had put Akhilesh on its list of star campaigners, Akhilesh would stay away from Congress and only campaign for the SP.

Before Azmi, Mulayam was the only leader who criticised the Samajwadi Party-Congress pact.

Recently, Mulayam praised Akhilesh for the tie-up with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and said the Congress Party was nothing beyond two seats (Rae Bareli and Amethi) in Uttar Pradesh.