Lucknow: Amid speculations of Savitri Bai Phule joining the Samajwadi Party, a day after she met party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, the sitting Bahraich MP on Sunday denied the reports and said her meeting was to discuss ways to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
While speaking to News18 over phone, Phule said, “The speculations about me joining Samajwadi Party are completely false. There were discussions (with Akhilesh Yadav) on how to defeat BJP at any cost.
“We want that alliance (SP-BSP) to take place and BJP should be defeated. However, I am not joining Samajwadi Party,” she said.
The meeting created ripples in political circles and it was speculated that Phule will be the joint candidate of SP and BSP if an alliance between Uttar Pradesh’s two major political parties is sealed before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Earlier in the day, Yadav admitted at a press conference in Lucknow that he met Phule, but denied to comment on speculations over the candidature of the rebel BJP MP in the Lok Sabha elections as a probable Mahagathbandhan candidate. “She had met me and told me about her problems, her issues were genuine,” Yadav had said.
Phule had resigned from the BJP earlier this month, criticising the party for “trying to create divisions in the society”.
Recently, while holding her first rally after quitting the BJP, Phule had launched a scathing attack on the saffron party, saying it should focus on marginalised sections and not on temple politics.
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