SP national executive authorises Akhilesh to decide on alliance for Lok Sabha polls

LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party national executive on Saturday authorised party president Akhilesh Yadav to take a decision on alliances and seat sharing for the general elections next year, an SP leader said.

Senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav said, “The main decision taken in the national executive is that party president Akhilesh Yadav has been authorised to take a decision on alliance and seat sharing for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.”

“The executive is of the view that elections should be held through ballot papers and not through EVMS (electronic voting machines),” he told reporters here.

The ruling BJP claimed that the SP’S demand reflected its “nervousness and desperation”.

“The SP appears to have accepted defeat even before the elections,” BJP spokesper- son Shalabh Mani Tripathi said.

Ram Gopal Yadav, when asked to elaborate on the discussions at the meeting about the political scenario, parried a direct reply, saying, “I am telling you about the decisions not the discussions.”

About absence of some party leaders, including Azam Khan from the meeting, he said, “Is it necessary that all should remain present? Ninety per cent of the members were present. Party president Akhilesh Yadav was also there.”

On being asked as to what the party would do if the Election Commission did not accept their demand for polls through ballot papers, Ram Gopal Yadav said SP leaders would sit at the doors of the EC and resort to satyagrah.

Asked about possibilities of him contesting from Sambhal Lok Sabha seat, he said, “It is up to the party to decide whether I will contest or not. If it directs me, I will contest. If it doesn’t, I will not.”

To a question on who will lead the alliance if it is formed, Ram Gopal Yadav said, “The government at the Centre is running with 17 parties. Their leader is only (Narendra) Modi. Every party has its leader.”

To another query as to whether there was any discussion about Akhilesh Yadav’s warring uncle Shivpal Yadav, he replied in the negative.

When his attention was drawn towards the frequent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Uttar Pradesh, Ram Gopal Yadav said, “This is just the beginning. As elections approach, he will have to come here on a daily basis.”

At the meeting, the attendees condoled the death of poet Gopal Das Neeraj and some other eminent personalities, and observed silence as a mark of respect to them.