Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Sunday claimed the alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh will have no impact on the politics of the state, PTI reported.
“The alliance means giving power to people who are corrupt, anarchic elements and have casteist mentality,” the chief minister said in Lucknow. “It is good that both these parties have come together. It will help us to effectively wipe them off.”
The Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party on Saturday announced their tie-up in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, contesting 38 seats each, and leaving the Congress out of their alliance.
Adityanath said the coalition functioned in the state from 1993 to 1995. “Everyone has seen their style of working,” he said. “They sow the seeds of casteism in the state.”
On the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Adityanath said the Bharatiya Janata Party will resolve the matter while staying within the ambit of the Constitution. “If there is anyone, who can resolve the issue, it is the BJP,” he said. “Those who had created this problem cannot resolve it.”
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav congratulated Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on the alliance. He met Mayawati in Lucknow and is likely to meet Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav later.
“Lalu ji [Lalu Prasad Yadav] wanted grand alliance in Uttar Pradesh, and Mayawati ji and Akhilesh Yadav to contest election together,” Tejashwi Yadav told reporters before meeting Mayawati, reported Hindustan Times.
Tejashwi Yadav alleged there was undeclared emergency in the country and efforts were being made to abolish the reservation system. He also claimed that his father and party chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was in jail because he refused to surrender before Prime Minister Narendra Modi, adding that he did not hold any grudge against Modi. “It is a fight for ideology,” Tejashwi Yadav added.
Lalu Prasad Yadav was sentenced to jail in multiple fodder scam cases.
However, Rashtriya Janata Dal National Vice President Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said excluding Congress from the Samajwadi-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance was not a good sign for future alliances at the national level, PTI reported. “If we [Opposition] have to provide an alternative on national level, then all the forces opposing BJP must unite in order to defeat them,” he said.
Former Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Singh Yadav called the alliance “thugbandhan” (alliance of thugs) and alleged that money must have been exchanged before forging the alliance, reported ANI. Yadav has said his newly-formed Pragtisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia is ready to join hands with the Congress.
“There have been no talks with the Congress yet,” Yadav said. “The Congress is a secular party and if it approaches us to defeat the BJP, we will lend our support.” Yadav said no alliance could defeat the BJP without the help of his party and that they were ready to form an alliance with secular parties to defeat the BJP.
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