Alliance with SP first priority: Shivpal Yadav

AGRA: Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party president Shivpal Yadav on Wednesday said his first priority is to form alliance with Samajwadi Party in the upcoming UP assembly poll but he did not rule out the possibility of a tie-up with other "secular" parties.

The PSP national president also claimed the Samajik Pariwartan Rath Yatra that began on Tuesday in Vrindavan, Mathura, would conclude at the birthplace of the lord Rama in Ayodhya after going through 75 districts in the state. "For the forthcoming UP State Assembly Election in 2022, we would give first priority to Samajwadi Party. We can also form an alliance with any party with a secular ideology with an aim to defeat the BJP government in UP," Yadav told reporters on Wednesday.

Cong may tie up with Shivpal, smaller parties

After Congress leader Acharya Pramod's pictures with Shivpal Yadav went viral, a speculation is gaining ground that the Congress in UP is trying to seek an alliance with smaller parties like the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party ahead of the next year's Assembly polls.

Shivpal Yadav, the estranged uncle of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, has some influence in Itawa, Mainpuri, Sambhal belt where Yadavs are in sizeable numbers.

The Congress is also working to take on board the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). Former Haryana Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s son Deepender Hooda, who shares a good rapport with the Jat leaders in UP, has been roped in by the Congress to work on the jat dominated areas. Though everyone is tight-lipped over the issue, and sources say that the RLD is in talks with SP.

Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav met bandit-turnedpolitician Phoolan Devi’s mother to seek her blessings on Wednesday. After reaching Jalaun during his “Vijay Rath Yatra”, Yadav saw Phoolan’s mother Moola Devi. He got off the vehicle and touched her feet.