Good ties with Cong to continue: Akhilesh

LUCKNOW: Former chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav made it clear on Saturday that his relationship with the Congress would always remain good, irrespective of his party’s pre-poll alliances.

In all likelihood, the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will have a pre-poll alliance in the forthcoming 2019 general election. Alliance between the two parties helped the Samajwadi Party to defeat BJP in Gorakhpur and Phoolpur Lok Sabha bypolls conducted recently.

Speaking at ‘Future of Democracy’ organised by former SP minister Abhishek Mishra, Akhilesh Yadav said: “No matter with whom we make an alliance, our relationship with the Congress will always remain good.”

When the former CM made this statement, Congress leader Kapil Sibal was seated in the audience in the front row.

Commenting on the forthcoming general election next year, the former chief minister said: “Regional parties have a bigger role to play to stop BJP.”

Attacking the BJP, Yadav stated that nobody was talking about development. He also listed development projects executed by his government during its five year rule from 2012 to 2017.

Yadav also asserted that had the BJP not won so many Parliamentary seats from Uttar Pradesh,

things would have been different. “But now people of UP have realized and things will be different (in next election),” said Yadav. Taking a dig at chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Yadav said: “The CM gave a statement that he was a Hindu and did not celebrate Eid. I am a backward Hindu and my wife is from a different caste,” said Yadav.

Hitting out at the Modi government, the former CM stated that now they were talking about an expressway between Delhi and Bengaluru. “But they have no time left (to execute the project),” said Yadav, referring to Lok Sabha elections due next year.