Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, who had been taking a soft approach towards Congress as opposed his ally Mayawati, has now changed his stand towards the grand old party.
Laying the blame on Congress for not joining the SP-BSP alliance, Akhilesh alleged that the party was more interested in strengthening itself rather than removing the Narendra Modi government in the Lok Sabha elections.
This was probably for the first time that SP Chief has come down heavily on the Congress. His statement came a day after the Congress announced released its second list of candidates, fielding several turncoats and former MPs who can hurt the SP and BSP in the elections.
On Wednesday, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi also met Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad at a hospital in Meerut, in what political observers said was a major snub to Mayawati.
Speaking to The Print on Thursday, Akhilesh said that the Congress should have cooperated with the SP-BSP alliance if it really wanted to defeat the BJP.
“The preparation for the alliance had begun long back and both SP and BSP cadres worked hard to defeat BJP on their home turf Gorakhpur and other bypolls. Both SP and BSP sacrificed their
interests in almost half of the seats. The country wants to remove the Modi government, but Congress only wants to strengthen itself,” he said.
“If the Congress really wants to stop BJP, they should co-operate with the SP-BSP alliance as we are doing well to stop the BJP. Not just Uttar Pradesh but also Congress should focus on defeating BJP in other states as well,” added the Samajwadi Party chief.
He claimed that when the alliance was being sealed in UP, the Congress was busy celebrating its victories in state assembly elections. The Congress had wrested Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh from the BJP in December.
“We gave them support and our lone MLA supported them but they forgot to give him a ministerial berth even after promising. They could have told us that they could not make our MLA a minister in MP government,” he said.
Yadav said that although the alliance did not fall apart due to Congress not making the SP MLA a minister, it showed a lack of respect for “friends”.
“They feel if he (SP MLA) becomes a minister, it will help the Samajwadi Party grow in MP,” added former UP CM.
The Samajwadi Party had forged a pre-poll alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party and it was decided that SP will be contest on 37 seats while the BSP will contest on 38 seats. Three seats were given to Rashtriya Lok Dal while two seats - Amethi and Rae Bareli - were left for Congress.
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