Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has finally ruled out his party's alliance with the Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing a party meeting here on Tuesday, Mr Yadav said that there was no possibility of an alliance in the Lok Sabha elections and his priority was to strengthen the Samajwadi Party.
The SP president admitted that the alliance with the Congress had not benefitted his party in the last year’s assembly elections.
“If the alliance had continued, the Congress would have contested the municipal polls with us”, he said.
“My friendship with Mr Rahul Gandhi remains but it is now time to strengthen the SP. We are on good terms with Rahul Gandhi but we definitely do not have any alliance for the polls, as of now,” he told reporters after the meeting. He further said, “There is time before the elections. The Lok Sabha polls are in 2019. We are presently working on each seat, going through local equations for selection of candidates.” He also termed the process of talks and negotiations as a ‘waste of time’.
The decision was apparently taken after he held a crucial meeting with heads of the districts, along with candidates who lost their elections.
According to sources, a large section of the party leaders felt that Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav was right because the party did not get any benefit from its alliance with the Congress.
Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, it may be recalled, had been strongly opposed to the alliance with the Congress and had predicted that it would spell doom for the party.
Most leaders said that the party could bargain at a later stage, post elections, if the situation demands.
Incidentally, the Samajwadi Party has shown its worst ever performance in assembly and Lok Sabha elections under the leadership of Mr Akhilesh Yadav.
While the party won 224 seats in the 2012 assembly elections when Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav was at the helm of affairs, the party came down to 47 seats in 2017 when Mr Akhilesh led the party.
