Amidst indications that Samajwadi Party leader and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is warming up to the idea of an alliance with the Congress, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee President Raj Babbar said his party will contest alone in the state and described such talks as “hypothetical”.
“Alliance talks in some way demoralises workers. I have no such information. The party leadership has not asked me to look for a tie up and it’s not under consideration. This is hypothetical,” he said.
Recently Akhilesh Yadav had said that his party was capable enough to get majority on its own but if there was an alliance with Congress, they would together get over 300 seats, triggering speculation of a pre-poll tie-up.
Akhilesh Yadav’s father and Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has already ruled out any pre-poll alliance, asserting that there can only be mergers.
The Chief Minister, however, had said that a final decision on the alliance will be taken by the Samajwadi Party chief and he can only give suggestions.
Akhilesh Yadav also suggested that Congress will have to accept that it may have to fight on a fewer number of seats than it wants in an alliance because a tie-up will not work out if it keeps thinking about “profit and loss”.
Asked about the issue, Mr. Babbar stressed that Congress will “contest UP polls alone” and the first list of the party candidates is likely to be released by the end of this month.
“The exercise of candidate selection is on…We have again asked for the prospective candidates list from district presidents,” he said.
To a question about the party’s expected performance in 2017, he said, “The situation is changing in the state. Those who were considering Congress as zero are now talking about it. Various campaigns in past few months have succeeded in connecting with people and they are looking for an alternative”.
