After the success of the alliance politics in Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypolls, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is making serious efforts to keep the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in good humour and also rope in the Congress in a broad-based anti-BJP formation.
Claiming that his friendship with the Congress has not ended, Akhilesh said the time has come to bury the past and look for new Rs friends’ as the recent bypoll results have given a new dimension to political friendship.
“What had happened has happened,” Akhilesh said in reference to bitter relations the SP had with the BSP in the past. “The time has come to look for new relationship and the SP is ready for that because the SP had always given respect to all the political parties and in turn has got respect from them,” Yadav told reporters in an impromptu Press conference here on Thursday.
At the same time, in an attempt to give a new meaning to the SP’s friendship with the BSP, Akhilesh for the first time issued a congratulatory message on the 84th birth anniversary of BSP founder Kanshi Ram on Thursday. In his message, Akhilesh said Kanshi Ram had struggled to provide social justice to downtrodden and the poor.
This message, which was released to the Press on Thursday evening, speaks volumes about efforts being made by Akhilesh to mend bridges with Mayawati. Talking about his equation with the Congress, Akhilesh said the two parties enjoy a good relation.
“Congress se sambandh hamare acche hain aur acche bane rahenge (We have good relation with Congress and it will continue,” Akhilesh said.
There were question marks on the fate of SP’s friendship with the Congress after the latter fielded candidates against them even as other Opposition parties supported their candidates. Both the Congress candidates lost their deposits in the bypolls.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said in Delhi that the Congress had approached Akhilesh with unity proposal but the suggestion was rejected.
“You make new relations in politics it does not mean you forget old friends,” Akhilesh said emphasising on the political relation between SP and Congress.
The SP president also questioned the impartiality of the Electronic Voting Machines. “If the EVMs were not tampered and time was not wasted, then the SP candidates would have won the bypolls with bigger margin,” he said.
He said some of the EVMs were found to have votes polled even before polling started. “Has these elections been held on ballot papers the victory margin of the SP candidates must have been more,” he said.
The SP president claimed that this win in UP is the victory of the poor, labourer, farmers, Dalits, minorities. “It is a historic win and will change the political scenario of the country,” he said adding: “We believe the language of the BJP leaders will change and they will work for the people.”