Akhilesh confirms SP-BSP tie-up
KANNAUJ/LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said the formal announcement of the alliance between his party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) would be made on Saturday.
“Tomorrow (Saturday) is a significant day as the SP-BSP alliance will be announced. As of now, the alliance is only between two parties. The role of any other party will be decided later,” Akhilesh said, addressing #ChaupalOntwitter, an i nitiative t o e nc o ur a g e c o nve r s a t i o n between leaders and community, in Kannauj.
“We will leave two seats (Rae Bareli and Amethi) for the Congress but won’t say anything more on Congress — if it will be on board or not,” he said.
On alliance possibilities, Akhilesh said: “We experimented with i t i n t hree Lok Sabha by- el ections and one st ate assembly by-poll. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost all the four seats and we won all.”
According to a joint announcement by SP national secretary Rajendra Chaudhary and BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, the press c onference would be hel d around noon on Saturday.
Meanwhile, during the programme in Kannauj, Akhilesh fielded over 30 questions from Twitter, the audience at the ‘Chaupal’, and newspersons.
Questioned about the che- quered history of SP and BSP, Akhilesh said: “I have full faith in Mayawati ji.”
The alliance between the two rival parties in UP has been in works since March last year.
Refusing to divulge the details of the alliance, Yadav said, “It won’t be appropriate to give any details before tomorrow’s press conference.”
The alliance will be announced exactly a week after the two leaders, in a recent meeti ng i n Delhi, discussed t he modalities of seat-sharing for the elections, according to people familiar with the developments.
They said the talks did not account for the Congress’s role in the alliance. It was proposed that both the parties would equally distribute 78 Lok Sabha