AAP MP-Akhilesh meet fuels speculations of pre-poll tie-up

LUCKNOW: Three days after a Twitter exchange between AAP and Congress leaders raised speculations of a possible pre-poll arrangement in Delhi in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the party's national secretary and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh on Monday visited Lucknow to meet Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav.

The two had a 40-minute closed-door meeting, fortifying prospects of a renewed Opposition unity building up in the Hindi heartland after bypoll successes by SP-BSP combine in Gorakhpur and Phulpur in March, and RLD-SP alliance in Kairana and Noorpur last week. The camp SP was quick to post the photographs of the meeting between two leaders on Twitter. "The purpose of the meeting was to congratulate Akhilesh ji on behalf of Kejriwal Ji on the grand success in Noorpur and Kairana bypolls. Besides, there was a longer discussion on the current anti-BJP mood following farmer protests and Dalit atrocities. We felt that there is a need for Opposition parties to unite," Singh told media after the meeting. The meeting between AAP and SP comes barely a week after AAP supremo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal met Akhilesh separately in Bangalore and subsequently announced support for Kairana and Noorpur bypolls.

AAP's presence so far in UP is though limited to western districts and the party registered some degree of success in 2017 urban bodies polls where it won 45 councillors' seats in Moradabad, Amroha, Hapur and neighbouring districts besides two chairmen, each in Bundelkhand and Bijnaur.

A senior SP leader said that party would not mind banking upon the bitter rivalry between AAP and BJP in Delhi and strategically used in national capital region (NCR) districts where it may enter into seat-sharing with RLD, AAP and BSP. "Moradabad, Bareilly, Agra and Saharanpur is where BJP has had its strongholds in the recent past. Thought Dalits and OBCs are now up in arms against them, our party would not mind exploring options with AAP in these districts," said an SP leader. Sources in the BSP confirmed that senior AAP leaders would also be meeting party chief Mayawati in Lucknow next week to offer support in the upcoming Madhya Pradesh elections.

What also brings an uncanny similarity between Kejriwal and Akhilesh is their engineering backgrounds and fondness for Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who has held talks with them in the backdrop of JDS-Congress alliance show in Bengaluru last month.