Tejashwi backs SP-BSP alliance, says coalition will win 120 seats in UP, Bihar

In a joint press conference with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav Monday, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Monday said he supports the BSP-SP alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. “We are ready to take 120 seats of UP and Bihar from BJP that is why I wanted to personally congratulate Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav,” said Tejashwi.

“I congratulate Mayawati ji and Akhilesh ji for forging this alliance in the national interest. It was necessary in light of the situation in the country right now. Those who were slaves of British are in power right now,” Tejashwi said today, a day after he met BSP supremo Mayawati.

Meanwhile, Akhilesh said that RJD’s support has acted as a cementing on SP-BSP alliance.

Launching an attack on the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party, Tejashwi said that his father and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav is in jail because “Modiji saw him as a threat”. The former Bihar chief minister was convicted in the fodder scam cases in January last year and is serving a jail term of 3.5 years. Tejashwi also slammed the Modi government, saying the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are no longer agencies, but “alliance partners of BJP.”

When asked about Congress’ exclusion from the alliance in UP, Tejashwi said the Samajwadi Party and BSP are enough to beat Modi. “The by-elections are also an indication of it. You can also read Rahul ji’s statement, he has said ‘BJP is not going to get seats here, who is in the alliance is not important.”

The RJD leader’s joint press conference with Akhilesh signals an alliance in making ahead of general elections. On Saturday, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav announced a tie-up of the former rival parties- BSP and SP- in Uttar Pradesh to defeat the BJP. Both parties will contest 38 seats each in the 80-member assembly, leaving two seats-Amethi and Rae Bareli-to the Congress and two for other regional parties.