The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday said that it was discussing a seat-sharing agreement with the Samajwadi Party about for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, The Indian Express reported.
The party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh made the announcement after meeting Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow.
Singh, who is also the AAP’s in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, said on Twitter that the meeting was a fruitful one. He added that the meeting was aimed at “freeing Uttar Pradesh from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s misgovernance”.
“Our primary goal is to defeat the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, which is suffering under the misrule of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath,” Singh told The Indian Express. “Akhilesh Yadav is in talks with many parties and our meeting today is also a step in that direction.”
The AAP MP added that the primary aim of all Opposition parties should be to defeat the BJP.
Singh had also met Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav on November 22.
Samajwadi Party leader Sunil Singh Sajan said they have been lending support to smaller parties with the aim of defeating the BJP, India Today reported. “BJP has not done any development in Purvanchal [eastern Uttar Pradesh] and is presenting a wrong model of development,” he said.
On October 20, the Samajwadi Party and the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, led by Om Prakash Rajbhar had entered into an alliance for the state elections scheduled to be held early next year. Rajbhar’s party was an ally of the BJP in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh polls, but the alliance broke ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections over disagreement regarding seat sharing.
On Tuesday, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Singh Chaudhary also said that the party has finalised an alliance with the Samajwadi Party, NDTV reported. Talks on seat-sharing between the two parties are in the final stages and a formal announcement on the alliance will be made soon, Chaudhary told the news channel.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Akhilesh Yadav promised that if the Samajwadi Party is voted to power in Uttar Pradesh, his government will give Rs 25 lakh to the families of farmers who died during protests against the agriculture laws.
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