Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav with uncle Shivpal Yadav (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav/ File) Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav Saturday hinted at a tie-up with uncle Shivpal Yadav’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP) for the next Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and emphasised that his party will not get into any alliance with “big parties”.
“The SP will try (to form alliance with) parties which we have been in talks with. We will have an adjustment with small parties, but there will be no alliance with big parties,” Akhilesh said while addressing the media in Etawah on Saturday.
Elections to the UP Vidhan Sabha are scheduled for February-March 2022.
Asked about the possibility of an alliance with the BSP in 2022, he said: “We have said that we will form alliance with small parties, but not with big parties.”
On possibility of an alliance with PSP, Akhilesh said: “I have said this in Lucknow also…. We will adjust the party (PSP). Jaswantnagar is their seat. The SP has left the seat for them. In future, their people should meet and form government. We will make their leader (Shivpal) a Cabinet minister too. What other adjustment is needed?”
Shivpal has been a five-time MLA from Jaswantnagar.
The SP chief also accused the BJP of resorting to “deceit” in order to defeat the RJD-led Grand Alliance in Bihar Assembly elections. He said: “Maximum public support was seen at Mahagathbandhan rallies, and all surveys hinted towards a historic victory for it. But when the EVMs were opened, the results were stopped midway and victory certificates were handed to someone else.”
He said: “Cheating on such a big scale has never been done (before). They (BJP) defeated Mahagathbandhan by cheating.”
Asked about the recent bypolls to seven seats in UP, Akhilesh said: “We won the seat which was ours. When the election is contested by DM, SP, ADM, SO and constables (alleging use of government machinery to win the by-elections by the BJP government), who will win?”
Asked why he did not visit Hathras in the aftermath of the death of the 19-year-old Dalit woman, after she was allegedly gangraped, Akhilesh said: “SP workers went and sat outside her village as part of demonstration.” The SP chief said he spoke with the victim’s brother. “He asked me to help him get the body so that they could do the last rites. I told him I will try but the government may not budge… I called my MLC; I called the district magistrate… Our party did everything possible…”