New Delhi: Efforts to form a “grand secular alliance” in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh went into top gear on Tuesday with the Congress declaring that it has decided to tie up with Samajwadi Party and the shape of the formation would be announced in the next two days.
“I am confident that the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance will form the next government in Uttar Pradesh,” AICC General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters confirming about the much-talked about the tie up.
Azad, who is in-charge of party affairs in Uttar Pradesh, said this was just a beginning of the alliance process and the nitty gritty would be decided in the next one or two days.
At the AICC briefing later, party coordinator for Uttar Pradesh, Meem Afzal, said “Congress will have an alliance with Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. The details of the arrangement will be announced in the next two days.”
The Congress announcement came close on the heels of reports from Lucknow where Samajwadi Party chief and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said a decision on tying up with the Congress will be taken in a “day or two”.
“Decision on alliance [with Congress] will be taken in a day or two,” he said, buoyed by the Election Commission’s order recognising him as the president of the Samajwadi Party and allowing him to retain the ‘bicycle’ symbol.
SP general secretary Ramgopal Yadav, a close aide of Akhilesh, expressed hope of a grand secular alliance to fight elections in the state.
Talks over seats
With the poll process set in motion after the notification was issued on Tuesday, hectic efforts are under way to hammer out such an alliance, with Congress being offered 90 to 100 seats by the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, which is also trying to rope in Ajit Singh’s RLD (Rashtriya Lok Dal) as a junior partner. Nitish Kumar’s JD-U (Janata Dal-United) is also said to be a minor partner.
Azad and Ramgopal were said to be ironing out some disputes over certain seats.
Uttar Pradesh has 403 Assembly constituencies where Akhilesh’s party would be contesting the majority of seats and was likely to have RLD as a junior partner in Western Uttar Pradesh, which was once a stronghold of Ajit Singh.
Talks about such an alliance had intensified since last week when Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had significantly remarked at the ‘Jan Vedna Sammelan’ that the elections in the key state will be an “exciting affair”.
The refrain in several opposition parties including Congress and SP was that the Narendra Modi-led BJP should be stopped in Uttar Pradesh as the electoral outcome would have a major bearing on the next Lok Sabha polls.
Meanwhile, former Delhi chief minister Shiela Dikshit, who has been projected by Congress as the Uttar Pradesh chief minister candidate, said that if the alliance takes place, she would step aside in favour of Akhilesh.
