Ganesh Kendale
NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav confirmed on Thursday that the party’s alliance with the Congress will continue.
This announcement came a day after the SP declared its candidates for six of the ten assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, where bypolls are scheduled for later this year.
Yadav made this statement while addressing reporters in Etawah, where he paid tribute to his father and SP founder, Mulayam Singh Yadav, on his death anniversary.
He addressed inquiries about the distribution of party tickets for the bypolls by saying, “I only want to say that INDIA bloc will be there. SP and Congress alliance will remain intact…”
However, he did not provide further details, stating that this was not the right time to discuss politics. When questioned about the recent Haryana poll results, he replied, “We will discuss this when we meet again.”
‘Congress demanded five seats in the bypolls’
Despite the SP’s recent announcement of candidates for six seats – Karhal (Mainpuri), Sisamau (Kanpur city), Milkipur (Ayodhya), Katehari (Ambedkar Nagar), Phulpur (Prayagraj), and Majhwan (Mirzapur) – the Congress demanded five seats in the bypolls including Phulpur and Majhwan, along with Ghaziabad, Khair (Aligarh), and Meerapur (Muzaffarnagar).
The SP spokesperson, Rajendra Chaudhary, mentioned that any seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress would be decided by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Regarding the SP’s announcement of candidates, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai said, “We have submitted a proposal about contesting 5 of the 10 seats to the high command. These were the seats won by BJP earlier.”
The official list from SP includes Tej Pratap Yadav from Karhal, Naseem Solanki from Sisamau, Mustafa Siddiqui from Phulpur, Ajit Prasad from Milkipur, Shobhawati Verma from Katehari and Jyoti Bind from Majhwan.
The by-elections were necessitated as nine seats fell vacant after their respective MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha, while the Sisamau seat required a bypoll due to the disqualification of SP MLA Irfan Solanki, who was convicted in a criminal case.
