No ‘positive response’ from Cong on alliance: SP

Team Udayavani, Jan 20, 2017, 4:22 PM IST

Lucknow: A day after ruling out tie-up with Rashtriya Lok Dal, Samajwadi Party today said it has not got any “positive response” from Congress on alliance and that it could give the party only 85 of 403 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Samajwadi Party, which is not on the same page with Congress on the issue of inclusion of RLD, said if that party wanted to defeat BJP, it should accept SP’s formula of seat-sharing.

“Under this formula, SP would give those seats to Congress on which its candidate were in first place or seats where SP was at third, fourth or fifth spots,” SP National Vice President Kironmay Nanda told reporters here after SP released its list of 191 candidates.

“Thus, Congress will get 54 seats. But if it (Congress) talks seriously, we can also give them 25-30 additional seats. The maximum seats we can give to them will be 85,” he said.

Noting that the main objective of SP was to defeat BJP in the Assembly polls, he said, “For this, we are trying for alliance with Congress but till now we have not got any positive response from them.”

To a question, Nanda expressed his party’s inability to given Amethi seat held by it to Congress. When it was pointed out that in today’s list SP has fielded candidates on various seats on which Congress candidates had won 2012 polls, Nanda said, “If alliance takes place, SP will withdraw its candidates from those seats.”

Formation of a ‘maha gathbandhan’ (grand alliance) in Uttar Pradesh appeared to be a matter of dispute between prospective allies SP and Congress, with both parties airing divergent views on inclusion of RLD headed by Ajit Singh.

Sources said RLD wanted more seats than what SP was ready to part with. Congress reportedly offered some 20 seats to RLD chief’s son Jayant Choudhary, who is in touch with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

According to insiders, Singh has said he will not accept less than 30 seats and was now contemplating going solo. To a query on tie-up with RLD, Nanda said, “There was no talk with RLD on alliance.”

When asked whether it has become difficult to forge alliance with Congress now, he said, “It will be too early to say so. We still want an alliance with Congress but on our own conditions. Poll process has already started and SP cannot wait for a long time.”