Congress says no to alliance with SP for UP polls

List of 403 names will be out by Dec.-end

Lucknow: The Congress ruled out any alliance with the ruling SP for next year’s Assembly elections in UP, saying that rumours suggesting a tie-up were designed to create confusion and demoralise Congress workers. UP Congress Committee (UPCC) president Raj Babbar said, “An alliance is not even under consi eration and we are preparing to contest all 403 seats in UP.”

Amidst speculations that chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is warming up for an alliance with Congress, UPCC president Raj Babbar on Monday said that speculations of an alliance with the Samajwadi Party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections were designed to create confusion and demoralise Congress workers in the state.

Mr Babbar, while talking to this correspondent on Monday, said, “An alliance is not even under consideration and we are preparing to contest all 403 seats in UP. There is no proposal or even thinking on an alliance. The question is hypothetical, but vested interests are fuelling these talks to create confusion in the Congress ranks”.

It is noteworthy that though Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav has already ruled out any alliance, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav recently indicated that he was open to the idea of a tie-up with the Congress.

Mr Babbar, once again, declined to comment on the role of political Recently Akhilesh Yadav had said that his party was capable enough to get majority on its own, but if there was an alliance with Congress, they would together get over 300 seats, trigerring speculation of a pre-poll tieup. Akhilesh’s father Mulayam Singh Yadav has already ruled out any pre-poll alliance, asserting that there can only be mergers.

strategist Prashant Kishore whose meetings with SP leaders have triggered reports of an alliance between Congress and Samajwadi Party.

“As UPCC president I can say that the party high command has not informed me of any such possibility. If anyone is meeting with other party leaders, he is doing it in his individual capacity and certainly not on behalf of the Congress,” he stated.

Mr Babbar said that candidates on all 403 seats are in the process of being finalised and the list is likely to be released by the end of December.

He said that the