SP, BSP set to announce UP alliance without Cong

Lucknow/New Delhi, Jan 11 

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati will Saturday announce their alliance for the Lok Sabha polls, appearing set to keep the Congress out of the pact in UP.

The Congress described this likelihood as a “very dangerous mistake” and said it was ready to fight the parliamentary polls alone in the state.

SP national secretary Rajendra Chaudhary and BSP national general secretary SC Misra Friday sent out the invitation for a joint press conference at a hotel in Lucknow.

Akhilesh confirmed in a TV interview that the press conference is on the alliance in UP, while parrying questions on seat-sharing with the Congress. At a meeting in Kannauj, he also said, “Our coming together has not only created fear in the BJP, but also in the Congress.” Smaller parties like the RLD and the Nishad Party are also likely to be part of the alliance, but were not mentioned in the announcement on the press conference.

RLD's state unit president Masood Ahmed said the party national vice president Jayant Chaudhary will be in the state capital on Saturday and, if invited, could be a part of the joint press conference. His party chief Ajit Singh evaded questions from the media on the two seats expected to be set aside for the RLD, saying the discussions were in an early stage.

In Delhi, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the objective of all opposition parties should be to defeat the ruling BJP and eliminate “autocracy, misgovernance” at the Centre. “We may have fallen on difficult times. But I think to ignore us can prove to be a very dangerous mistake,” he said on the possible SP-BSP alliance. “Since everybody realises that, I think we will have a happy and harmonious solution sometime in the near future,” he said.

UP Congress spokesperson Rajiv Bakshi said the party was ready to fight the coming elections alone in the state. “We alone have 45 seats in the LS and it is any day many more than the regional players,” he said. “A ‘mahagathbandhan’  needs to be built around the party having a national face.” — PTI